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).