SAMPLE PREPARATION BY SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL FOOD AND POLYMER ANALYSIS

Extraction with supercritical CO2 is a versatile method for sample clean-up and trace enrichment. The off-line coupling of SFE and HPLC is used to determine various explosives in debris as well as pesticides in soil. In food analysis the method could be applied to determine cholesterol in noodles quantitatively. Correlations between the retention in RP chromatography and required extraction conditions could be established. The higher the organic modifier concentration in the eluent has to be, the smoother the extraction conditions required. With the non-volatile solutes studied, extraction temperature had no influence on extraction yield and speed. On-line coupling of SFE and capillary SFC is a very convenient and sensitive method for the determination of polymer additives. The coupling device described can also be used for "solventless" injection in capillary SFC.