Sample preparation using Supported Liquid Extraction
The Supported Liquid Extraction (SLE) process is analogous to traditional liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and utilizes the same water immiscible solvent systems for analyte extraction. However, instead of shaking the two immiscible phases together, the aqueous phase is immobilized on an inert diatomaceous earth based support material and the water immiscible organic phase flows through the support, alleviating many of the liquid handling issues associated with traditional LLE such as emulsion formation. As a result recoveries are often higher and demonstrate better reproducibility from sample to sample.