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SPE-01
1.3 Small footprint and computer-free operation
The instrument has a small footprint and does not need a computer. The solvent bottles are placed
on top of the instrument. The compact design helps to save precious laboratory space. When
volatile or toxic solvents (such as hexane, acetone, and petroleum ether) are used in sample
preparation, the instrument can be conveniently placed in a fume hood.
1.4 Easy transfer of existing manual methods
Below is an example of methods for SPE-01:
Line #
Action
Flow rate
Volume
1
Elute 2
15
5.0
2
Elute 1
15
10.0
3
Add samp
6
20.0
4
Elute 2
6
5.0
5
Collect 1
6
5.0
6
Elute 3
10
10.0
7
Collect 2
6
10.0
The format is very similar to manual methods. Any manual procedure for column cleanup can be
conveniently transferred to an instrument method.
2. Applications
2.1 Column cleanup for analysis of drug and pesticide residues in food samples
Traditional column cleanup uses glass columns packed with silica gel, alumina, or Florisil. Now
pre-packed solid phase extraction cartridges are getting popular.
A typical clean up method involves pre-conditioning of column using a strong solvent (such as
acetone) followed by a weak solvent (such as hexane). After adding the sample, columns are first
eluted with a weak solvent to remove lipids and other low polarity components from sample matrix.
The strength of elution solvents can then be increased stepwise. In handling multi-residue analysis,
pesticides of different polarity may be collected into two fractions. Existing methods can be easily
modified and used for SPE-01 plus automation process.
Since it is hard to control the flow rate and volume of solvents, the repeatability of manual SPE is
not satisfactory and is mainly used for simple clean up. SPE-01 plus can control flow rate
accurately and helps to improve reproducibility of the analysis. With SPE-01 plus, users can do
multi step elution using up to 5 solvents. Therefore, the instrument is very useful for the clean up of
complex samples and especially for the simultaneous analysis of multi-residues.