Related Experiment Videos
Supercritical fluid extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array-electrochemical detection of
Qingyong Lang1, I Francis Cheng, Chien M Wai
1Department of Chemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844, USA.
Abstract:
A supercritical fluid extraction procedure and a chromatographic separation/detection method were developed for the detection of Earth-based microorganisms. After microbes in a sand or a soil sample were hydrolyzed in a diluted NH(4)OH/acetone solution, several redox compounds from bacteria could be effectively extracted with trimethylamine-modified supercritical CO(2) at 35 degrees C and 300 atm. These signature redox-active compounds were separated by a reversed-phase HPLC column in an ion-pair mode and then monitored with a diode array detector and an electrochemical detector. The analytical results demonstrated the feasibility of using the reported techniques to detect the chemical signature of life in barren desert sand samples.