Supramolecular Solvents in the Analytical Process

Abstract

Supramolecular solvents (SUPRASs) have been long recognized as outstanding extractants in analytical processes. In addition to their remarkable properties for solubilization of a number of polar and apolar compounds using minute volumes of solvent, they can be tailored at will and produced spontaneously at reduced cost. Although not enough effort has been devoted to the synthesis of new solvents and elucidation of their structure, important progress has been performed in the past decade to the development of new formats and the coupling to different detection systems. This article gives an overview of the state of art of how solvents are produced, their capability for extraction and concentration, the formats used, the strategies developed to make SUPRASs compatible with a number of detection systems, and major applications reported on the extraction of metals and organic compounds in the biological, environmental, and agrifood areas.