A review on procedures for the preparation of coatings for solid phase microextraction

Introduced in the 1990s, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) has found numerous applications. This is due to the solventless nature of SPME and the large variety of sorbents and coatings available. Highly diverse procedures have been applied to coat supports such as fused silica fibers or metal wires with sorbents in order to enhance capability, selectivity and robustness of SPME. Lately, research also is directed towards more simple methods for deposition of different types of coatings. Several of these methods have resulted in better stability and higher effective surface areas of the coatings. This review (with 128 references) covers the state of the art in methods for coating materials for use in SPME. It is divided into the following sections: (a) Dip methods and physical agglutination methods, (b) sol-gel technology, (c) chemical grafting, (d) electrochemical methods for coating (such as electrodeposition, anodizing and electrophoretic deposition), (e) electrospinning, (f) liquidphase deposition, and (g) hydrothermal methods. A final section covers conclusions and future trends.