ASPECTS: an automation-assisted SPE method development system.

BACKGROUND

A typical conventional SPE method development (MD) process usually involves deciding the chemistry of the sorbent and eluent based on information about the analyte; experimentally preparing and trying out various combinations of adsorption chemistry and elution conditions; quantitatively evaluating the various conditions; and comparing quantitative results from all combination of conditions to select the best condition for method qualification. The second and fourth steps have mostly been performed manually until now.

RESULTS

We developed an automation-assisted system that expedites the conventional SPE MD process by automating 99% of the second step, and expedites the fourth step by automatically processing the results data and presenting it to the analyst in a user-friendly format.

CONCLUSION

The automation-assisted SPE MD system greatly saves the manual labor in SPE MD work, prevents analyst errors from causing misinterpretation of quantitative results, and shortens data analysis and interpretation time.