The mass transfer dynamics of hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction and its application for rapid analysis of...

Hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) has been demonstrated to potentially become a mainstream sample preparation technique for complex samples. Nevertheless, the need for a relatively long extraction time is considered to be the major disadvantage of this method. Lengthy extractions may cause the loss of the extraction phase and may change the contents of biological samples via the action of enzymes. Therefore, control calibrations for particular biological systems must be made. In this study, a theoretical model of the mass transfer dynamics of two-phase HF-LPME was proposed, and the kinetic calibration (KC) of this method for plasma and urine samples was validated. The theoretical results were validated by examining the kinetics of the extraction and back-extraction processes of HF-LPME. The KC-HF-LPME method was successfully used to correct for matrix effects in plasma and urine samples during flunitrazepam analysis. The free amount of flunitrazepam was extracted from plasma for 10 min and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The amount of pre-added standard and the standard remaining in the extraction phase after extraction were used for the quantification of flunitrazepam in plasma and urine samples. The new method not only significantly shortens the extraction time but also provides a new opportunity to determine the free concentration of analyte in biological systems.