Trends in solid-phase microextraction for determining organic pollutants in environmental samples

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a recent technique for sample prepara tion, It has been used successfully to analyze environmental pollutants in a variety of matrices such as soils, water, and air. SPME is a solvent-free technique which has a number of advantages over more conventional sample p reparation techniques such as liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phas e extraction (SPE), We describe the most recent developments in SPME and so me which are being developed, including its coupling to HPLC and CE, the us e of new fibers, and the automation of the entire SPME process and its appl ication to field analysis. A summary is given of the most important paramet ers for applying this extraction technique to the analysis of environmental samples. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B,V, All rights reserved.