On-site rapid screening of benzodiazepines in dietary supplements using pipette-tip micro-solid phase extraction coupled to ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract In this study, a reliable and novel coupling of pipette-tip micro-solid phase extraction (PT-μSPE) with corona discharge ionization-ion mobility spectrometry (CD-IMS) was developed for on-site fast detection of benzodiazepines (BZDs) in dietary supplements. The poly (styrene-co-divinylbenzene) (St-co-DVB) monoliths fabricated in pipette-tips through an in-situ polycondensation reaction. The extraction procedure of PT-μSPE for aqueous sample was performed for an appropriate number of aspirating/dispensing cycles by using a manual micropipettor. Then analytes retained in the polymeric monoliths were eluted with elution solvents by repeating the aspirating/dispensing cycles, and the eluates were analyzed by CD-IMS. In order to find the best extraction conditions, several parameters such as the number of aspirating/dispensing cycles for extraction and desorption, pH, elution solvent, amount of polymer and ionic strength were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, the LOD of this method was in the range of 5-15 ng ml−1. The spiked recovery values in real sample were obtained by PT-μSPE-IMS in the range of 84.2%-112.1% and validated by ultraperformance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). PT-μSPE as an on-site sampling method can be suitably combined to IMS which has great potential to achieve high throughput detection by using a multichannel micropipette. The satisfactory analytical results reveal that the developed method can be effectively applied for on-site screening BZDs in health products.