Modern trends in solid phase extraction: New sorbent media
Abstract Based on the recently published literature, this review provides an update of the most important features and application of formats and devices employed in solid phase extraction (SPE). Special attention was paid on new trapping media proposed in SPE prior the chromatography analysis, based on the use of nanostructured materials, including carbon nanomaterials, electrospun nanofibers, dendrimes and magnetic nanoparticles, molecular recognition sorbents, as aptamers, immunosorbents, molecular imprinted polymers, ion imprinting polymers, metal-organic frameworks and restricted access materials. Discussions on the present limitations as well as expected future trends of the new trapp…
Green Chemistry in Higher Education: State of the Art, Challenges, and Future Trends
Nowadays, there is increasing interest in global sustainability, and thus, university students would like to know how human actions affect the health status of our planet. This is mainly due to their basic knowledge of problems such as global warming and greenhouse gases. Students would like to gain knowledge on how to safeguard the earth for future generations. This must involve changes in education programs at interested institutions and universities. To ensure that future generations of chemists are equipped with proper knowledge, significant efforts are needed. Thus, this article aims to present the history of green chemistry, its milestones, and ideas on how to teach this subject. A di…
Assessment of ecotoxicity and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) emissions from food and children's toy products
The development of new methods for identifying a broad spectrum of analytes, as well as highly selective tools to provide the most accurate information regarding the processes and relationships in the world, has been an area of interest for researchers for many years. The information obtained with these tools provides valuable data to complement existing knowledge but, above all, to identify and determine previously unknown hazards. Recently, attention has been paid to the migration of xenobiotics from the surfaces of various everyday objects and the resulting impacts on human health. Since children are among those most vulnerable to health consequences, one of the main subjects of interest…
Current air quality analytics and monitoring: a review.
This review summarizes the different tools and concepts that are commonly applied in air quality monitoring. The monitoring of atmosphere is extremely important as the air quality is an important problem for large communities. Main requirements for analytical devices used for monitoring include a long period of autonomic operation and portability. These instruments, however, are often characterized by poor analytical performance. Monitoring networks are the most common tools used for monitoring, so large-scale monitoring programmes are summarized here. Biomonitoring, as a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional sample collection, is becoming more and more popular, although its main …
The miniaturised emission chamber system and home-made passive flux sampler studies of monoaromatic hydrocarbons emissions from selected commercially-available floor coverings
Abstract The estimation of the emission rate of organic compounds released from various types of indoor materials can be performed using stationary environmental test chambers (ETC) classified as ex-situ methods or small-scale portable analytical devices based on the use of passive technique at the stage of analytes sampling from the gaseous phase (in-situ methods). The paper presents results of emissions of selected organic compounds from the monoaromatic hydrocarbons group (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p,m-xylene and styrene) emitted from the surfaces of various types of commercially-available floor coverings and the underlay made of polyurethane foam which might be installed indoors u…
Miniaturized solid-phase extraction techniques
More than 80% of analysis time is spent on sample collection and sample preparation, so sample preparation is a critical part of the analytical process. Traditionally, liquid-liquid extraction was developed and employed to screen for general unknowns. However, solid-phase extraction (SPE) is becoming highly popular as an alternative, due to its simplicity and economy in terms of time and solvent. This review summarizes the current state of the art and the future prospects for green analytical chemistry with special emphasis on environment-friendly sample-preparation techniques based on the solid phase. We discuss in detail miniaturized SPE techniques, based on the most relevant, most repres…
Indoor air quality of everyday use spaces dedicated to specific purposes—a review
According to literature data, some of the main factors which significantly affect the quality of the indoor environment in residential households or apartments are human activities such as cooking, smoking, cleaning, and indoor exercising. The paper presents a literature overview related to air quality in everyday use spaces dedicated to specific purposes which are integral parts of residential buildings, such as kitchens, basements, and individual garages. Some aspects of air quality in large-scale car parks, as a specific type of indoor environment, are also discussed. All those areas are characterized by relatively short time use. On the other hand, high and very high concentration level…
Recent developments and future trends in solid phase microextraction techniques towards green analytical chemistry.
Solid phase microextraction find increasing applications in the sample preparation step before chromatographic determination of analytes in samples with a complex composition. These techniques allow for integrating several operations, such as sample collection, extraction, analyte enrichment above the detection limit of a given measuring instrument and the isolation of analytes from sample matrix. In this work the information about novel methodological and instrumental solutions in relation to different variants of solid phase extraction techniques, solid-phase microextraction (SPME), stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) is presented, including prac…
Computational modeling of molecularly imprinted polymers as a green approach to the development of novel analytical sorbents
Abstract The development of novel molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) sorbents for specific chemical compounds require a lot of tedious and time-consuming laboratory work. Significant quantities of solvents and reagents are consumed in the course of the verification of appropriate configurations of polymerization reagents. Implementation of molecular modeling in the MIP sorbent development process appears to provide a solution to this problem. Appropriate simulations and computations facilitate the determination of the nature of interaction between the reagents and thus the selection of the best configuration of chemicals for the preparation of the sorbent. The article presents literature …
Green aspects, developments and perspectives of liquid phase microextraction techniques.
Determination of analytes at trace levels in complex samples (e.g. biological or contaminated water or soils) are often required for the environmental assessment and monitoring as well as for scientific research in the field of environmental pollution. A limited number of analytical techniques are sensitive enough for the direct determination of trace components in samples and, because of that, a preliminary step of the analyte isolation/enrichment prior to analysis is required in many cases. In this work the newest trends and innovations in liquid phase microextraction, like: single-drop microextraction (SDME), hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME), and dispersive liquid-liqu…
Preparation and characterization of dummy-template molecularly imprinted polymers as potential sorbents for the recognition of selected polybrominated diphenyl ethers.
The main aim of this work was to conduct the preliminary/basic research concerning the preparation process of a new dummy molecularly imprinted polymer (DMIP) materials. Developed DMIPs were proposed as a sorption material in solid-phase extraction (SPE) technique for recognition of selected low mass polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) – PBDE-47 and PBDE-99. Four new DMIPs were synthesized employing bulky polymerization technique by application of structural analogue of low mass PBDEs - 4,4′-Dihydroxydiphenyl ether, as a dummy template. The DMIPs and corresponding non-imprinted polymers were prepared using different functional monomers: methacrylic acid; methyl methacrylate and different…
Analytical procedures for short chain chlorinated paraffins determination - How to make them greener?
Abstract The aim of the following paper was to gather current scientific information about the analytical protocols dedicated to measuring the content level of short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) in various types of environmental samples. Moreover, the data about the basic validation parameters of applied procedures for SCCPs determination are listed. The main issue which is highlighted in the paper is the possibility of the application of green analytical chemistry (GAC) principals in the SCCPs measuring process to reduce the environmental impact of the applied methodology. Analytical methods dedicated to SCCPs determination contain a significant number of steps and require advanced …
Structure and performance properties of environmentally-friendly biocomposites based on poly(ɛ-caprolactone) modified with copper slag and shale drill cuttings wastes.
The potential application of two types of industrial wastes, drill cuttings (DC) and copper slag (CS), as silica-rich modifiers of poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) was investigated. Chemical structure and physical properties of DC and CS fillers were characterized using X-ray diffractometer, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, particle size and density measurements. PCL/DC and PCL/CS composites with a variable content of filler (5 to 50 parts by weight) were prepared by melt compounding in an internal mixer. It was observed that lower particle size of DC filler enhanced processing of biocomposites comparing to CS filler. Smaller particles of DC filler and thus the higher specific surface area, enabl…
Application of molecularly imprinted polymers in analytical chiral separations and analysis
Over the last two decades the process of development and application of a new types of molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) sorbents in the field of analytical chemistry have been widely described in the literature. One of the new trends in analytical chemistry practice is the use of new types of MIP sorbents as specific sorption materials constituting the stationary phase in advanced separation techniques. The following review paper contains comprehensive information about the application of a specific and well defined MIP sorbents (with the data base in the paper about the reagents used in MIP preparation process) as stationary phases in separation techniques including high performance liqui…
Determination of antifreeze substances in the airport runoff waters by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method
Abstract A new method has been developed for the determination of antifreeze agents such as ethylene glycol (EG), propylene glycol (PG), and diethylene glycol (DEG) in the samples of airport runoff water. The method is based on headspace solid–phase microextraction (HS–SPME) of target analytes, which is coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Until now, there was a lack of appropriate methodology for collecting reliable data about the concentration levels of these toxic de/anti-icing substances in the new type of environmental samples such as the airport runoff water. The evaluation of green extraction technique, i.e., HS–SPME resulted in establishing the optimal extracti…