LCGC Europe-11-01-2007

Faster isn't always better.

This month's instalment of "Sample Prep Perspectives" describes a new extraction technique called QuEChERS (standing for quick, easy, cheap, effective and safe and is pronounced "catchers") for the sample preparation of pesticides in foods and agricultural samples. The technique uses simple glassware, a minimal amount of organic solvent and various salt/buffer additives to partition analytes into an organic phase for clean up by dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE). The technique provides good recoveries, is reproducible and costs less than other sample preparation approaches. The technique is being adopted by many laboratories worldwide. It has the potential for applications outside of the pesticide in foods area.

So much more to this Walkman than just playing tunes; Mac users have new security at their fingertips; Ultimate burning green lasers; New screen technology will dazzle

Information from guidance documents used in clinical investigations can be very useful to help meet FDA regulations regarding computer security in analytical laboratories.

Potentiometry is a new detection method for liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). The principle behind this method is familiar to chromatographers because the signals depend on the partitioning tendency of analytes over the sensor coating and the eluent. This partitioning provokes a change in the surface potential and the detection of these changes can be classified as "potentiometric". A conversion algorithm is needed to convert the generated signals to concentration-related tracings (chromatograms).

High performance liquid chromatography–solid phase extraction–nuclear magnetic resonance (HPLC–SPE–NMR) is a novel hyphenation technology that concentrates single chromatographic peaks to elution volumes matching those of NMR flow probes. The SPE unit facilitates the solvent exchange from the mobile phase of the optimized HPLC assay to a deuterated NMR solvent. The well-defined NMR solvent conditions make spectra comparisons feasible, which means databases and spectra catalogues can be used to swiftly identify analytes. The ability to accumulate analytes on the SPE cartridges by multiple trapping reduces the need to perform residual solvent suppression experiments and allows heteronuclear NMR experiments to be performed overnight. Structure elucidation of natural products directly from crude extract HPLC samples has become the key application of this technique.