Electric Field-Assisted Solid Phase Extraction: Study of Electrochromatographic Parameters with an Anionic Model Compound

Electric field-assisted solid phase extraction using syringe type cartridges (E-SPE) is a recent approach with a high capacity to obtain differential selectivity and/or recovery in comparison with conventional solid phase extraction (SPE). In this work, E-SPE was employed for the extraction of the anionic dye sunset yellow. During the washing step the electric field was evaluated with the top electrode negatively (E-SPE(–/+)) or positively charged (E-SPE(+/–)) and the results were compared with conventional SPE to understand how the electrochromatographic parameters can influence the recovery of the dye. Using the E-SPE(–/+) the electric field can increase the elution of the dye from the cartridge by over 57-fold. This notable result can be attributed to the electrophoretic velocity of the dye in the direction of the flow rate of the eluent. These results demonstrated that E-SPE is an interesting approach to elute ionic compounds with reduced volumes of eluent or less amount of organic solvent.