On-line coupling of solid-phase extraction to liquid chromatography--a review

Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is an effective sample preparation method for removal of interfering compound and enrichment of analyte. Liquid chromatography (LC) with various detectors is a main separation and detection technique used in the analytical field. This article reviews the literatures about the on-line coupling of SPE with LC. The advantages of on-line coupling are reduction of analysis time, sample contamination, and analyte losses, as well as improvement of precision and accuracy. The SPE sorbents including traditional materials, such as chemically bonded silica, ion-exchange and carbon-based materials, and some novel sorbents, such as restricted access material, molecularly imprinted polymer, immunosorbent, and monolithic material, used in the on-line analysis are discussed in detail. The on-line coupling of SPE-LC to other sample preparation techniques, such as supercritical fluid extraction, subcritical water extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, and derivatization technique are also reviewed.