Fused Deposition Modeling Enables the Low-Cost Fabrication of Porous, Customized-Shape Sorbents for Small-Molecule Extraction

Fused deposition
modeling, one of the most common techniques in
three-dimensional printing and additive manufacturing, has many practical
applications in the fields of chemistry and pharmacy. We demonstrate
that a thermoplastic elastomer-poly­(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite
material (LAY-FOMM 60), which presents porous properties after PVA
removal, is useful for the extraction of small-molecule drug-like
compounds from water samples. The usefulness of the proposed approach
is demonstrated by the extraction of glimepiride from a water sample,
followed by LC-MS analysis. The recovery was 82.24%, with a relative
standard deviation of less than 5%. The proposed approach can change
the way of thinking about extraction and sample preparation due to
a shift to the use of sorbents with customizable size, shape, and
chemical properties that do not rely on commercial suppliers.