Electrospun fibrous thin film microextraction coupled with desorption corona beam ionization-mass spectrometry for rapid analysis of antidepressants in human plasma

Abstract

Appropriate sample preparations prior to analysis can significantly enhance the sensitivity of ambient ionization techniques, especially during the enrichment or purification of analytes in the presence of complex biological matrix. Here in, we developed a rapid analysis method by the combination of thin film microextraction (TFME) and desorption corona beam ionization (DCBI) for the determination of antidepressants in human plasma. Thin films used for extraction consisted of sub-micron sized highly ordered mesoporous silica-carbon composite fibers (OMSCFs), simply prepared by electrospinning and subsequent carbonization. Typically, OMSCFs thin film was immersed into the diluted plasma for extraction of target analytes and then directly subjected to the DCBI-MS for detection. Size-exclusion effect of mesopores contributed to avoid of the protein precipitation step prior to extraction. Mass transfer was benefited from high surface-to-volume ratio which is attributed to macroporous network and ordered mesostructures. Moreover, the OMSCFs provided mixed-mode hydrophobic/ion-exchange interactions towards target analytes. Thus, the detection sensitivity was greatly improved due to effective enrichment of the target analytes and elimination of matrix interferences. After optimization of several parameters related to extraction performance, the proposed method was eventually applied for the determination of three antidepressants in human plasma. The calibration curves were plotted in the range of 5–1000ng/mL with acceptable linearity (R2 >0.983). The limits of detection (S/N=3) of three antidepressants were in ranges of 0.3–1ng/mL. Reproducibility was achieved with RSD less than 17.6% and the relative recoveries were in ranges of 83.6–116.9%. Taken together, TFME–DCBI-MS method offers a powerful capacity for rapid analysis to achieve much-improved sensitivity.