A novel analytical technique termed drop-to-drop solvent microextraction (DDSME) was developed to determine three methoxyacetophenone isomers in one drop of water, which were then detected by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry using electronic ionization mass spectrometry for quantification analysis and self-ion/molecule reaction/tandem mass spectrometry for isomer differentiation. The best optimum parameters for the DDSME technique were as follows: extraction time, 5 min; using toluene as the extraction solvent; volume of extraction solvent, 0.5 microL and no salt addition. The advantages of this method are rapidity, convenience, ease of operation, simplicity of the device, and extremely little solvent and sample consumption. The limit of detection (LOD) for this technique was 1 ng/mL. The relative standard deviation was less than 2.6% (n = 5). The linear range of the calibration curve of DDSME is from 0.01 to 5 microg/mL with correlation coefficient (r2) of >0.954. In the comparison of the LOD of DDSME with other sample pretreatment methods including liquid/liquid extraction (LLE), single-drop microextraction (SDME), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), and liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) using a dual gauge microsyringe with hollow fiber methods, this method shows much better in sensitivity than the LLE (25 ng/mL) and it is compatible with SDME (0.5 ng/mL), SPME (0.5 ng/mL), and LPME using a dual gauge microsyringe with a hollow fiber (1 ng/mL). However, DDSME was more convenient than the LPME using a dual gauge microsyringe with a hollow fiber method and much lower cost than the SPME technique.

A liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) method using a micropipette with disposable tips was demonstrated for coupling to atmospheric pressure MALDI-MS (AP-MALDI/MS) as a concentrating probe for rapid analysis and quantitative determination of nortriptyline drug from biological matrices including human urine and human plasma. This technique was named as micropipette extraction (MPE). The best optimized parameters of MPE coupled to AP-MALDI/MS experiments were extraction solvent, toluene; extraction time, 5 min; sample agitation rate, 480 rpm; sample pH, 7; salt concentration, 30%; hole size of micropipette tips, 0.61 mm (id); and matrix concentration, 1000 ppm using alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) as a matrix. Three detection modes of AP-MALDI/MS analysis including full scan, selective ion monitor (SIM), and selective reaction monitor (SRM) of MS/MS were also compared for the MPE performance. The results clearly demonstrated that the MS/MS method provides a wider linear range and lower LODs but poor RSDs than the full scan and SIM methods. The LOD values for the MPE under SIM and MS/MS modes in water, urine, and plasma were 6.26, 47.5, and 94.9 nM, respectively. The enrichment factors (EFs) of this current approach were 36.5-43.0 fold in water. In addition, compared to single drop microextraction (SDME) and LPME using a dual gauge microsyringe with a hollow fiber (LPME-HF) technique, the LODs acquired by the MPE method under MS/MS modes were comparable to those of LPME-HF and SDME but it is more convenient than both methods. The advantages of this novel method are simple, easy to use, low cost, and no contamination between experiments since disposable tips were used for the micropipettes. The MPE has the potential to be widely used in the future because it only requires a simple micropipette to perform all extraction processes. We believe that this technique can be a powerful tool for MALDI/MS analysis of biological samples and clinical applications.

This study introduces a novel extraction technique in the nanoscale and challenges the limits of solvent extraction in the GC/MS using electronic ionization (EI) method for quantitative determination of six methoxyacetophenone (MAP) and anisaldehye (AAH) isomers in one drop of water and urine. This technique is termed as dynamic liquid phase nanoextraction (DLPNE). The optimum parameters for the DLPNE technique were: selection of solvent, toluene; sampling volume, 0.44 microL; dwell time, 2 s; number of sampling, 15; extraction time, 1.5 min; volume of extraction solvent, 60 nL; and no salt addition. The LODs for this technique were 5-20 ng/mL. The RSDs were in the range of 9.7-12.6% (n = 6). The linear dynamic range of the calibration curve of DLPNE is from 0.02 to 0.5 microg/mL with correlation coefficient (r(2)) >0.9705. The advantages of the DLPNE technique are rapidity, ease of operation, simple device, and extremely little solvent and sample consumption. This technique was also compared with the static liquid phase nanoextraction (SLPNE) while the SLPNE failed to detect any signal for the six isomers. We believe that this technique can be very useful for the detection of volatile organic compounds in environmental science from microscale of water or it can be applied to clinical or pharmaceutical application such as diagnosis of microamount of urine or blood samples by GC/MS.