Enrique Dapena de la Fuente

Extractive fluorimetric determination of ultratraces of lead with 18-crown-6 and eosin.

A highly sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric procedure for the determination of lead in the range 0.003-0.5 ppm, based on solvent extraction of the ion-pair formed between the eosinate anion and the cationic complex of Pb(2+) with 18-crown-6, has been developed. The relative standard deviation is 3.7% at the 0.1 ppm level. The metal :ligand: counter-ion molecular ratio in the ion-pair extracted is 1:1:1, but aggregation of the complex may occur in the organic phase. The system proposed is exceptionally selective for extraction of lead in the presence of other cations frequently associated with it. The proposed method has been tested in the determination of lead in tap water. The results show good agreement with those found by the more common extractive atomic-absorption method using ammonium tetramethylenedithiocarbamate.

Experimental design applied to the analysis of volatile compounds in apple juice by headspace solid-phase microextraction.

A simple and fast method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by fast gas chromatography (Fast GC) has been developed for the analysis of volatile compounds in Asturian apple juices employed in the cider production. Three different fiber coatings have been checked (PDMS, PDMS-DVB and CAR-PDMS) and PDMS-DVB has been presented to be the most suitable one. Experimental design has been employed in the optimization of extraction factors and robustness assessment. The use of Fast GC allowed the separation of 14 compounds (esters, aldehydes and alcohols) in approximately 4 min, clearly reducing the analysis time when compared to conventional GC. Good linearity, recoveries and repeatability of the solid-phase microextraction were obtained with r(2) values, recoveries and relative standard deviations ranging from 0.9822 to 0.9998, 83.2 to 109.8% and 0.5 to 11.7%, respectively, using standard solution.

A novel method for the determination of total 1,3-octanediols in apple juice via 1,3-dioxanes by solid-phase microextraction and high-speed gas chromatography

In this work, a novel, simple and fast method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by high-speed gas chromatography (HSGC) was developed for the analysis of total 1,3-octanediols in apple juices by means of derivatization reaction to volatile 1,3-dioxanes. The derivatization reaction, SPME conditions, glycosidically bound fraction and 1,3-nonanediol as a surrogate standard were studied. The formation of 1,3-dioxanes from 1,3-diols was confirmed by GC-MS. The method was validated obtaining a regression coefficient (r(2)) of 0.9996, precisions between 0.3 and 9.8%, extraction recoveries in the range 94.7-112.2% and LOD of 2.9 microg l(-1). Experimental design has been employed in the optimization of extraction factors and robustness assessment. The method was applied to the analysis of 21 Asturian apple varieties finding a double reciprocal relationship between the concentrations of saturated and unsaturated 1,3-octanediol.