In-tube solid phase microextraction coupled to miniaturized liquid chromatography for both, noble metal nanoparticle assessment and sensitive plasmonic assay development

L Sanjuan-Navarro; S Cortés-Bautista; Y Moliner-Martínez; P Campíns-Falcó

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2021.338665

In-tube solid phase microextraction coupled to miniaturized liquid chromatography for both, noble metal nanoparticle assessment and sensitive plasmonic assay development

Anal Chim Acta. 2021 Aug 1:1171:338665. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2021.338665. Epub 2021 May 21.

Authors

L Sanjuan-Navarro¹, S Cortés-Bautista¹, Y Moliner-Martínez¹, P Campíns-Falcó²

Affiliations

¹ MINTOTA Research Group, Departament de Química Analítica, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Valencia, 46100, Burjassot, Spain.
² MINTOTA Research Group, Departament de Química Analítica, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Valencia, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. Electronic address: pilar.campins@uv.es.

PMID: 34112440
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2021.338665

Abstract

Colorimetric localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) as analytical response is applied for a wide number of chemical sensors and biosensors. However, the dependence of different factors, such as size distribution of nanoparticles (NPs), shape, dielectric environment, inter-particle distance and matrix, among others, can provide non-reliable results by UV-vis spectrometry in complex matrices if NP assessment is not carried out, particularly at low levels of analyte concentrations. Miniaturized liquid chromatography, capillary (CapLC) and nano (NanoLC), coupled on line with in-tube solid phase microextraction (IT-SPME) is proposed for the first time for both, controlling suitability of used noble metal NP dispersions and developing plasmonic assays. Several capped noble NPs and target analytes were tested from variations in the chromatographic profiles obtained by using diode array detection. The IT-SPME step, which influenced the chromatographic fingerprint provided by noble NP dispersions, was studied by asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation (AF4) too. We monitored NP aggregation induced by interaction with several analytes like acids and spermine (SPN). Assessment of NPs was achieved in less than 10 min and it permitted to develop suitable plasmonic tests. Here, it was also demonstrated that these assays can be followed by IT-SPME-miniaturized LC-DAD and more sensitivity and selectivity than those provided by UV-Vis spectrometry were achieved. Analysing urine samples to determine SPN as a cancer biomarker as a proof of concept is presented.

Keywords: Acids; In-tube SPME; Miniaturized liquid chromatography; Noble nanoparticle assessment; Plasmonic assay; Spermine; Urine sample.