Development of an improved heated interface for coupling solid-phase microextraction to high-performance liquid chromatography.

The aim of the study described in this report has been the development and the evaluation of a new improved interface to be operated under continuous heating, for on-line coupling solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Heating is desirable to increase desorption rate and decrease carryover. The results obtained have been compared with that obtained by off-line desorption and online desorption without heating. The SPME-HPLC interface described here has an inner volume of 60 microL, fixation for infinite points and a novel leak less sealing system. When the heating system was used, the area values were almost 10-fold higher than that obtained using the off-line mode. The obtained chromatograms showed an increasing of the area and height of chromatographic peaks and proved the excellent performance and reproducibility of the interface developed in this work.