Solid‐Phase Microextraction

Abstract

Jet propellant 8 (JP-8) is a complex mix of hydrocarbons used by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries in military aircrafts and vehicles. The exposure of civilians as well as servicemen is of great importance. JP-8 contains many components that have shown to be related to many ill effects including: benzene (leukemia), naphthalene (cataract, laryngeal carcinoma, neoplasms), and long chain hydrocarbons have been shown to increase the carcinogenicity of other compounds present in JP-8 related to the incidence of lung cancer). The analysis of this fuel is a very arduous task because its composition varies from batch to batch and contains thousands of components. Therefore accurate identification of the compounds present in this fuel along with an accurate, sensitive and precise analytical method are needed to improve the efforts to develop a PB/PK model for this fuel. A PB/PK model will be effective in describing and predicting plasma and tissue concentrations of JP-8 and DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this dissertation to the memory of Margaret Green, Joseph Green, and Louise Gregg, because of their perseverance, strength and fortitude I am able to reach this great milestone in my life. I stand on your shoulders. To momma, daddy (Michael and Loretta Gregg), thank you for always believing in me and sharing your wisdom. Thank you for your sacrifice, your love, and your unconditional support. I am what I am because of you. You felt every triumph and disappointment. You too have earned doctorate degrees in this process. I love you. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to give honor to God because I know that I am not capable of anything without him. His grace and mercy are what has sustained me all these years. To my loving husband and family, thank you for teaching me that I can do anything I set my mind to. Your love and support is immeasurable. To my sisters: Shonette, Margaret and Michelle you are awesome. Thank you! I would like to thank Dr. Michael Bartlett my major professor for helping me to understand and enjoy the field of mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry and its need throughout different areas of science. I would also like to acknowledge the help and insight from Dr, Fisher on the subject of JP-8. I would also like to thank Dr. Capomacchia for introducing me to the program here at UGA and making sure my transition was uncomplicated. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to

Determination of potential childhood asthma biomarkers using a powerful methodology based on microextraction by packed sorbent combined with ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography. Eicosanoids as case study

“…To date, several analytical platforms have been developed in order to study urinary levels of eicosanoids in asthmatic patients including the traditional sample preparation techniques such as liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) [12] and SPE [12,13], usually hyphenated to mass spectrometry; and enzyme immunoassays [14,15], an alternative to chromatography. Even though these techniques are widely used among researchers, they are not easily hyphenated to an analytical platform, expensive, time consuming, unfeasible sampling procedure, need considerable amounts of harmful organic solvents with strong environmental implications, especially in the case of LLE, and requires substantial amounts of sample [16].…”

“…Microextraction techniques emerged in the 90's with SPME [16,17] and up to date, a noteworthy number of different microextraction techniques are continuously being developed including needle-based sampling techniques such as MEPS [18], a miniaturized SPE technique consisting of a removable cartridge containing a sorbent, and a syringe-like sampler device, which can be manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic [19]. This technique has been recently applied in the analysis of urine samples for the characterization of, among other, environmental/occupational derived metabolites [20,21], psychoactive metabolites [22,23] and disease potential biomarkers related to asthma [24].…”