Electrospun nanofibers as sorbent material for solid phase extraction

Abstract

Electrospinning has emerged as the most versatile technique for nanofiber fabrication. Owing to their large surface area to volume ratio, electrospun nanofibers have the potential to serve as a good sorbent material for solid phase extraction (SPE) based techniques. The ability to incorporate a variety of functionalities prior or post-electrospinning presents a platform to tune the sorbents for specific applications. It is the aim of this contribution to highlight some of the recent developments that harness the great potential of electrospun nanofibers as sorbents for SPE. The review discusses the various ways in which the electrospinning technique addresses two important parameters for sorbent material, which are sorptive capacity and selectivity. It concludes by presenting and discussing the potential for development of SPE format technology and configurations based on electrospun nanofibers.