Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for determination of organic analytes

One of the most important objectives of modern analytical chemistry is miniaturization, simplification and automation of the whole analytical procedure, especially to speed up sample treatment, which is currently the bottleneck of analysis. Introduction of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) has greatly contributed to meeting this objective, due to its simplicity, rapidity of operation and low consumption of solvents and reagents. DLLME has attracted much interest from scientists working in separation science. Since its introduction in 2006 for preconcentration of organic analytes from water samples, a good number of works have reported efficient, quick extraction of organic or inorganic analytes. However, before using DLLME, there is a need to optimize carefully influential factors (e.g., types and volumes of extraction and disperser solvents, extraction time, sample amount, pH, and salt addition). The present review focuses on applications of DLLME for extracting organic analytes (e.g., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers) from the time that DLLME was introduced to the end of December 2009. We pay special attention to those works that represent an improvement in the technique and the most challenging applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.