Highly Reproducible Sample Preparation for LC/MS: New Application Note

What are the pitfalls of Solid Phase Extraction?

As a sample preparation method, Solid Phase Extraction is widely acknowledged as a 'go to' tool for the clean-up of samples before analysis by hyphenated techniques such as LC/MS or GC/MS. Solid Phase Extraction offers several advantages to the analyst, including less system downtime and troubleshooting, cleaner chromatograms with a reduction of contaminating compounds, and greater reproducible analyte recoveries. Unfortunately, traditional SPE methods rely upon loose-filled resins which often create problems such as voids in the sorbent beds leading to channelling and inconsistent flow-through of solutions. These undesirable effects lead to reduced interactions between analytes and the active resin resulting in inconsistent results and poor analyte recovery.

Solution for robust and reproducible LC/MS Sample Prep 

An in-depth application report from Porvair Sciences demonstrates how their Microlute® CP Reverse Phase Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) microplates provide a robust and highly reproducible SPE LC-MS sample preparation methodology for a range of neutral, acidic, and basic analytes.

Designed to overcome these shortfalls, Microlute® CP SPE microplates from Porvair Sciences, incorporate a unique, polymer structure made up of an interconnected network of evenly distributed pores combined with retentive media. This hybrid technology ensures even liquid flow rates throughout the SPE process, which leads to sufficient time for Van der Waals forces of interaction to take place between the solid phase sorbent and the analytes resulting in a highly reproducible SPE method.

Experimental data is provided in the application report to show how Microlute® CP RP 96 well microplates selectively retain and elute a wide range of neutral, basic and acidic compounds. The data demonstrate how percentage relative standard deviation values from the Microlute® CP are on average significantly lower than using other commercial SPE plates, thereby producing more reproducible results. In addition, the application notedemonstrates  that no analyte is lost in the load step of the SPE process leading to high recovery values for all types of compounds. The Microlute® CP RP 96 well-plate for solid phase extractions is also shown to offer significant benefits for the recovery of hydrophobic basic analytes.
 
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