New materials in sorptive extraction techniques for polar compounds

This paper provides an overview of the new developments in material and formal technology that improve the extraction of polar compounds in several extraction techniques. They mainly include solid-phase extraction, but there are also other sorptive extraction techniques, such as stir bar sorptive extraction and solid-phase microextraction that use either fibers or in-tube devices. We focus on new synthesised materials that are both commercially available and "in-house". Most novel materials that enhance the extraction of polar compounds are hydrophilic and have large specific surface area; however, we also cover other leading technologies, such as sol-gel or monolith. We describe the morphological and chemical properties of these new sorbents so that we can better understand them and relate them to their capability of retaining polar compounds. We discuss the extraction efficiency for polar compounds when these polymers are used as sorptive material and compare them to other materials. We also mention some representative examples of applications. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.