Applicability of new configuration of open tubular solid phase microextraction for determination of free (unconjugated) testosterone esters by gas chromatography with barrier ionization discharge detector

[Display omitted] •An innovative device based on microextraction in a solid beam tube has been developed.•The BID detector has been successfully applied for the analysis of testosterone esters.•Satisfactory results regarding the validation of the method were obtained. The methodology has been developed for analyzing testosterone esters in urine by gas chromatography with a barrier ionization discharge (GC-BID) detector for anti-doping analysis. For sample preparation, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used as a trapping polymer in the new configuration of an open tube trapping solid-phase microextraction (OTT-SPME). The new device developed by this research group was called Intra Tube Flux Extraction (IT-FEX-SPME). The performance of the IT-FEX-SPME-GC-BID method was validated concerning extraction kinetics, sensitivity: the limit of detection (LOD 0.5–0.8 ng mL−1) and the limit of quantification (LOQ 1.5–2.4 ng mL−1), repeatability (