8 - SPME and Environmental Analysis

Abstract

A wide range of applications of SPME for environmental analysis have been reported. It is evident that the SPME technique is very useful for extraction of a variety of chemicals from environmental samples, including very complex matrices. In this chapter, environmental analysis with different configurations of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is summarized, and some of the environmental applications of SPME in gaseous, aqueous, and solid matrix are presented. The SPME technique has been widely used for the analysis of environmental pollutants in air, water, soil, and sediment samples, using on-site or off-site analytical approaches. With the development of SPME theory, several calibration methods have been proposed for the quantification of SPME and several SPME devices have been developed for on-site fast field sampling or the long-term monitoring of environmental pollutants. A number of fiber coatings have been developed in the laboratory to extend the applications of SPME for environmental and other analyses. Several coatings based on the sol-gel technology have been developed for the determination of environmental pollutants in samples. The SPME derivatization technique has been widely used for the treatment of polar compounds and to enhance the recovery, selectivity, and sensitivity of the SPME method. This approach makes it is possible to identify substances with poor chromatographic behavior, high reactivity, or thermal instability. The procedures of in-tube SPME include extraction, concentration, desorption, and injection and can be easily automated using a common autosampler. This technique has been successfully applied to the determination of various environmental pollutants. A new SPME approach, thin-film microextraction or membrane SPME, was recently developed to achieve higher extraction efficiency and sensitivity. This approach has been successfully applied to field water sampling.