About the Operation Steps of the Solid Phase Extraction Cartridge

Brief introduction of SPE cartridge

Solid phase extraction column or solid-phase extraction cartridges, SPE cartridges for short is a sample pretreatment device developed from chromatography column for extraction, separation, and concentration.

It is a more popular and mature sample pretreatment method in recent years, including a solid phase (solid adsorbent with certain functional groups) and liquid phase (sample and solvent). Because the extraction adsorbent has different functional groups, it can adsorb and retain specific compounds on the extraction column. The filler is a polymer resin formed by introducing anion exchange groups into a polymer with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups.

Operation steps of SPE cartridge

Here are the operation steps of the solid phase extraction cartridges:
In view of the difference in the retention mechanism of the filler (the filler retains the target compound or retains impurities), the operation is slightly different, and the extraction operation generally has four steps:

1. The filler retains the target compound
Activation—-Remove impurities in the small column and create a certain solvent environment.
Sample loading—-The sample is dissolved in a certain solvent, transferred to the column, and the components are retained on the column.
Rinse—-To some extent, eliminate interference.
Elution—-Use a small volume of solvent to elute and collect the test substance.

2. The filler retains impurities
The operation generally has three steps:
Activation—-create a certain solvent environment by removing impurities in the column.
Sample loading—-transfer the sample to the column. At this time, most of the target compound will flow out with the sample base solution, and the impurities will be retained on the column, so this step should start the collection.
Elution—use a small volume of solvent to wash off the components and collect them, and combine the collected liquids.
This kind of situation is mostly used to remove pigment in food or pesticide residue analysis.

The simple solid-phase extraction can be done manually, that is, a syringe is connected to the upper end of the solid-phase extraction column, and the liquid in the extraction column is squeezed out of the extraction column by squeezing the syringe. In addition, a positive or negative pressure solid phase extraction device can also be used to perform solid-phase extraction operations on batch samples.

With the development of science and technology and the increase in the number of samples, more and more analytical laboratories are beginning to use automatic solid-phase extraction instruments, especially multi-channel solid-phase extraction instruments to process batches of samples.