Development of a New Extraction Device Based on Parallel-Electromembrane Extraction

A new device for parallel-electromembrane extraction (Pa-EME) was developed to enable simultaneous and high-throughput extraction of ionic and ionizable compounds from biofluids. The new system is composed of a reusable conductive well-plate used as an acceptor compartment and a filtration well-plate used as a donor compartment. A design of experiments was implemented to optimize the main experimental parameters (agitation, voltage, and time) with standard solutions in formic acid 50 mM. The stirring rate was found the primary influent parameter. The Pa-EME device showed excellent extraction yields from 84% to 101% with RSD lower than 7.5% on model compounds. Optimized parameters were then applied to plasma samples and process efficiencies from 59% to 62% and RSD of less than 8.0% were obtained. The whole extraction process took less than 20 min to prepare 8 samples simultaneously, greatly enhancing the sample preparation throughput (<3 min per sample).