Oxidized buckypaper as novel sorbent material for solid phase micro extraction.
The development and the characterization of new materials for sample preparation is a sector at the cutting edge of analytical chemistry. Over the last few years, attention has mainly been focused on carbon nanostructured materials because of their potential as superior sorbents in solid phase extraction (SPE) operations on conventional and miniaturized scale. Recently, attention of our research group has been attracted by buckypaper (BP), a nanoporous flexible felt of about 0.2 mm thickness, composed of entangled unoriented oxidized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which is suitable to be used as a sorbent membrane.
The aim of this research is to develop an oxidized BP-based device for micro SPE of biomolecules of interest from human plasma and/or other biological fluids (urine and saliva). The extraction module will be designed to process very small sample volumes (micro-SPE) in short time through the assistance of magnetic stirring. Several parameters will be optimized in order to maximize recoveries, for example: adsorption and desorption time; stirring speed; type, volume and fractions of the elution solvent; volume, pH and ionic strength of the sample. In particular, the effects of an acid treatment with nitric acid will be studied to modulate oxidation grade of BP and, consequently, its affinity for analytes with different polarity.
At the present moment, BP has still been little explored within the framework of sample preparation, but its peculiar characteristics make it a promising material for the development of original extraction devices designable in several shapes, sizes and realization modes.