Solid phase microextraction (SPME), needle trap device (NTD), and membrane extraction with a sorbent interface (MESI) are solvent-free sample preparation techniques that were developed to perform the rapid routine analysis of organic compounds (VOCs) in various environmental matrices by integrating sampling, extraction, preconcentration and sample introduction procedures into one step. A portable ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) analyzer has some advantages, such as small size, light weight, operability under ambient pressure, air as carrier gas, and sensitivity, all of which make IMS suitable for on-site monitoring for low concentration of analytes. The aforementioned sampling and preconcentration techniques were coupled with a portable IMS analyzer, as well as a thermal desorption unit that can accommodate SPME, NTD and MESI, which was modified and combined with IMS for on-site monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from human breath and plant emissions. Experimental results demonstrated that low detection limits were achievable for gaseous analytes, (25 ng/L for acetone (SPME-IMS), 43 ng/mL (NTD-IMS) and 2.3 ng/mL (MESI-IMS) for α-pinene). These three analytical systems were applied for on-site rapid determination of acetone in human breath and α-pinene from plant emissions respectively. The salient features of these systems that make them suitable for on-site monitoring of volatile organic compounds in different sources are: small size, simple operation, fast and/or on-line sampling, rapid analysis.

The main objective of the emerging field of metabolomics is the analysis of all small molecule metabolites present in a particular living system in order to provide better understanding of dynamic processes occurring in living systems. This type of studies is of interest in various fields including systems biology, medicine and drug discovery. The main requirements for sample preparation methods used in global metabolomic studies are lack of selectivity, incorporation of a metabolism quenching step and good reproducibility. The efficiency of metabolism quenching and stability of analytes in selected biofluid or tissue dictate how accurately the analytical results represent true metabolome composition at the time of sampling. However, complete quenching of metabolism is not easily accomplished, so sample preparation can significantly affect metabolome's composition and the quality of acquired metabolomics data. In this research, the feasibility of the use of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in direct extraction mode for global metabolomic studies of biological fluids based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was investigated for the first time. Initial research presented in this thesis focused on resolving several outstanding issues regarding the use of SPME for the analysis of biological fluids. SPME was not simultaneously capable to provide high-sample throughput and high degree of automation when coupled to LC-MS. This was successfully addressed through the development and evaluation of a new robotic station based on a 96-well plate format and an array of 96 SPME fibres. The parallel format of extraction and desorption allowed increased sample throughput of >1000 samples/day which represents the highest throughput of any SPME technique to date. This exceeds sample throughput requirements for a typical metabolomics study whereby ~100 samples/day are processed. SPME can also be used for direct in vivo sampling of flowing blood of an animal without the need to isolate a defined sample volume. This format of SPME is particularly attractive for metabolomic studies as it decreases the overall number of steps and also eliminates the need for metabolism quenching step because only small molecular weight species are extracted by the device, whereas large biological macromolecules such as proteins are not extracted by the coating. In current work, in vivo SPME sampling was successfully applied for sampling of mice for the first time. The proposed sampling procedure was fully validated against traditional terminal and serial sampling approaches for a pharmacokinetic study of carbamazepine and its metabolite. Excellent agreement of pharmacokinetic parameters such as systemic clearance, steady-state volume of distribution and terminal half-life was found for all three methods, with no statistically significant differences (p>0.05). The performance of new prototype commercial SPME devices based on hypodermic needle was also evaluated within the context of the study. The availability of such single-use devices with excellent inter-fibre reproducibility (<10% RSD) presents an important step forward in order to gain wider acceptance of in vivo SPME sampling. Finally, existing SPME coatings were not suitable for the simultaneous direct extraction of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic species, which is one of the requirements for a successful global metabolomics study. To address this issue, a systematic study of 40 types of commercially available sorbents was carried out using a metabolite standard test mixture spanning a wide molecular weight (80-777 Da) and polarity range (log P range of -5 to 7.4). The best performance for balanced extraction of species of varying polarity was achieved by (i) mixed-mode coating containing octadecyl or octyl group and benzenesulfonic acid ion exchange group, (ii) polar-enhanced polystyrene-divinylbenzene polymeric coatings and (iii) phenylboronic acid coatings. The second aspect of the research focused on the evaluation of SPME for a global metabolomics study of human plasma using two complementary LC-MS methods developed on benchtop Orbitrap MS system: reverse-phase method using pentafluorophenyl LC stationary phase and HILIC method using underivatized silica stationary phase. The parameters influencing overall method sensitivity such as voltages, mass ranges and ion inject times into C-trap were optimized to ensure best instrument performance for global metabolomic studies. Orbitrap system provided a powerful platform for metabolomics because of its high resolution and mass accuracy, thus helping to distinguish between metabolites with same nominal mass. The acquisition speed of the instrument at the highest resolution setting was insufficient for use with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC), so all methods were developed using conventional LC. However, overall metabolite coverage achieved in current study compared well or even exceeded metabolite coverage reported in literature on different LC-MS or UHPLC-MS platforms including time-of-flight, quadrupole time-of-flight and hybrid Orbitrap instruments. The performance of SPME was fully compared versus traditional methods for global metabolomics (plasma protein precipitation and ultrafiltration). The main findings of this systematic study show that SPME provides improved coverage of hydrophobic metabolites versus ultrafiltration and reduces ionization suppression effects observed with both plasma protein precipitation and ultrafiltration methods. Using SPME, <5% and <20% of peaks showed significant matrix effects in reverse phase and HILIC methods, respectively and the observed effects were mostly correlated to elution within retention time window of anticoagulant for the majority of metabolites showing this effect. This improves overall quality of collected metabolomics data and can also improve metabolite coverage. For example, the highest number of metabolite features (3320 features) was observed using SPME in combination with negative ESI reverse-phase LC method, while in positive ESI mode plasma protein precipitation with methanol/ethanol mixture provided the most comprehensive metabolite coverage (3245 features versus 1821 features observed for SPME). Method precision of SPME method was excellent as evaluated using median RSD (11-18% RSD) of all metabolites detected. A proof-of-concept in vivo SPME study was also performed on mice to study the effects of carbamazepine administration and shows that SPME can be used as successful sample preparation method for global metabolomic studies in combination with unsupervised statistical data analysis techniques. This study highlights important advantages of in vivo sampling approaches including the ability to capture short-lived and/or unstable metabolites, to achieve truer representation of the metabolome at the time of sampling than achievable by blood withdrawal methods and the ability to use smaller animal cohorts while obtaining highly-relevant data sets. The experimental results provide new and useful insight into the effects of different sample preparation methods on the collected metabolomics data, and establish both in vitro and in vivo SPME as a new tool for global LC-MS metabolomics analysis for the first time.

The use of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) as solid sorbent in Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion (MSPD) extraction and preconcentration method was presented to determine some commonly used organophosphorus insecticides/OPIs in honey samples using a Gas Chromatography Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). OPIs are poisonous compounds used to kill insects and rodents by affecting their nervous system. The limit of detections obtained after MSPD extraction were 7.0 ng/g for Malathion, Malaoxon and Fenitrothion and 33.3 ng/g for Isomalathion. The recovery of the insecticides from spiked honey, ranged from 83.6% to 103.3% with % RSD ranged from 9.8% to 12.3% (n=3). The correlation coefficient (R2) of the calibration data varied from 0.9945 to 0.9987. Standard addition method was utilized to examine matrix-induced effects on analyte peaks, and to demonstrate the efficiency of the method. The MSPD extraction was successfully applied for the analysis of four honey samples but no insecticide residues were detected.

<p>A solid phase extraction (SPE) method was developed for simultaneous extraction of dicarboxylic acids and diols formed during hydrolysis of poly(butylene succinate), PBS, and poly(butylene adipate), PBA. The developed SPE method and subsequent GC-MS analysis were used to extract, identify and quantify low molecular weight products migrating from linear and branched poly(butylene adipate) (PBA) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) during aging in aqueous media. The combination of SPE and GC-MS proved to be a sensitive tool, able to detect small differences in the degradation rate during early stages of hydrolysis before any significant differences were observed by weight loss and molecular weight measurements. The detected low molecular weight products included monomers i.e. adipic acid and 1,4-butanediol for the PBA polymers and succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol for PBS. Several dimers and trimers i.e. hydroxybutyl adipate, hydroxybutyl succinate, di(hydroxybutyl) adipate, di(hydroxybutyl) succinate and hydroxybutyl disuccinate were also detected. Best extraction efficiency for 1,4-butanediol and succinic acid was achieved with a hydroxylated polystyrene-divinylbenzene resin as solid phase. Linear range for the extracted analytes was 1-500 ng/ml for adipic acid and 2-500 ng/ml for 1,4-butanediol and succinic acid. Detection and quantification limits for all analytes were between 1-2 ng/ml (S/N=3) and 2-7 ng/ml (S/N=10) respectively. Relative standard deviations were between 3 % and 7 %. Comparison of measured weight loss and the amount of monomeric products showed that weight loss during early stages of hydrolysis was mainly caused by the release of water-soluble oligomers that on prolonged ageing were further hydrolyzed to monomeric species. Significant differences in degradation rate could be assigned to degree of branching, molecular weight, aging temperature and degradation medium.</p><p>Linear and branched PBA was mixed with PVC in solution cast films to study the effects of molecular weight and branching on plasticizer efficiency. Used as polymeric plasticizer, PBA formed a semi-miscible two-phase system with PVC where the amorphous part exhibited one single glass transition temperature and the degree of polyester crystallinity was dependent on molecular weight, degree of branching and blend composition. Plasticizing efficiency was favored by higher degree of branching and a 40 weight-percent polyester composition.</p>

Glycoconjugates are biologically important molecules with diverse functions. They consist of carbohydrates of varying size and complexity, attached to a non-sugar moiety as a lipid or a protein. Glycoconjugate structures are often very complex and their intricate biosynthetic pathways makes overexpression difficult. This renders the isolation of pure, structurally defined compounds from natural sources cumbersome. Therefore, to better address questions in glycobiology, synthetic glycoconjugates are an appealing alternative. In addition, synthetic methods allow for the preparation of non-natural glycoconjugates that can enhance the understanding of the influence of structural features on the biological responses. In this thesis, synthetic methods for the preparation of glycoconjugates, especially glycolipid analogues, have been developed. These methods make use of solid-phase chemistry and are amenable to library synthesis of series of similar compounds. Solid-phase synthesis is a technique where the starting material of the reaction is attached to small plastic beads through a linker. This allows large excess of reagents to speed up the reactions and the sometimes difficult purifications of intermediate products are reduced to simple washings of the beads. One problem with solid-phase synthesis is the difficulties to monitor the reactions and characterize the intermediate products. Gel-phase 19 F-NMR spectroscopy, using fluorinated linkers and protecting groups, is an excellent tool to overcome this problem and to monitor solid-phase synthesis of e.g. glycoconjugates. Two novel fluorinated linkers for the attachment of carboxylic acids have been developed and are presented in the thesis. These linkers can be cleaved with both acids of varying strengths and nucleophiles like hydroxide ions, and they are stable to glycosylation conditions. In addition, a novel filter reactor for solid-phase synthesis was designed. The reactor fits into an ordinary NMR spectrometer to facilitate the reaction monitoring with gel-phase 19 F-NMR spectroscopy. The biological applications of the synthesized glycolipids were demonstrated in two different settings. The CD1d restricted binding of glycolipids carrying the monosaccharide α-GalNAc as carbohydrate could be detected on viable cells of mouse origin. CD1d is one of several antigen presenting molecules (the CD1 proteins) that presents lipids and glycolipids to circulating T-cells that in turn can initiate an immune response. The CD1 molecules are relatively sparsely investigated, and the method to measure glycolipid binding on viable cells, as described in the thesis, has the possibility to greatly enhance the knowledge of the structural requirements for CD1-binding. Serine-based neoglycolipids with terminal carboxylic acids were used to prepare glycoconjugate arrays with covalent bonds to secondary amines on microtiter plates. Carbohydrate arrays have great possibilities to simplify the study of interactions between carbohydrates and e.g. proteins and microbes. The usefulness of the glycolipid arrays constructed in the thesis was illustrated with two lectins, RCA120 from Ricinus communis and BS-1 from Bandeiraea simplicifolia. Both lectins bound to the array of neoglycolipids in agreement with their respective specificity for galactosides. Glycobiology is a large area of great interest and the methods described in this thesis can be used to answer a variety of glycoconjugaterelated biological questions.

Evaluation of solid-phase microextraction as an alternative official method for analysis of polymers migration. The objective this study was to compaire the official methods with solid-phase microextraction (SPME)for the analysis of compounds migrating from cross-linked polyethylene into water. A medium polarity polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB)was proved most efficient for the SPME extraction. However, when applied to water samples in contact with polyethylene, SPME proved to be immensely more sensitive and have a greater extraction range than liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). It was proved the migration of Phenol, 2,4-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl). Concentration of this compound 0,6-0,15mg/l.It was proved the migration of Cyclohexadiene-1,4-dione, 2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl).

Pasiūlyta nauja kietafazės mikroekstrakcijos sistema, kurioje nerūdijančio plieno strypelis dengtas anglies nanovamzdeliais, ištirtas jos terminis stabilumas ir atrankumas, nustatyta, kad sistema tinka lakių aromatinių angliavandenilių ekstrakcijai iš tirpalo ir iš viršerdvės. Ištirtos keturių skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcijos metodų - skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcijos kapiliare, mikroekstrakcijos užšaldomu tirpiklio lašu, dispersinės skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcijos ir dispersinės skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcijos užšaldant ekstraktą - galimybės ekstrahuoti lakius aromatinius angliavandenilius. Optimizuotos tirtų metodų ekstrakcijos sąlygos, nustatytos pagrindinės analizinės charakteristikos. Visų metodų rezultatų pasikartojamumas ir aptikimo ribos artimi. Išimtis – dispersinė skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcija, kuria gautos kiek didesnės aptikimo ribos. Greičiausi ekstrakcijos metodai - dispersinė skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcija ir dispersinė skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcija užšaldant ekstraktą, ilgiausiai trunka mikroekstrakcija užšaldomu tirpiklio lašu. Švarių mėginių ekstrakcijai tinka visi tirti metodai, užterštiems mėginiams geriau tinka kietafazė mikroekstrakcija iš viršerdvės arba skysčių-skysčių mikroekstrakcija kapiliare. Paruoštos lakių aromatinių angliavandenilių mikroekstrakcijos metodikos pritaikytos vandens ir sniego mėginių analizei. / A new solid phase microextraction system composed of nanotubes coating fixed on a stainless steel support is suggested. Thermal stability and selectivity of the system was examined. It was determined that the system can be used for direct and headspace extraction of volatile aromatic hydrocarbons. Possibilities of four liquid phase microextraction techniques – hollow fibre liquid phase microextraction, liquid phase microextraction based on the solidification of a floating drop, dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and dispersion-solidification liquid-liquid microextraction – for the extraction of volatile aromatic hydrocarbons were investigated. Extraction conditions of the investigated methods were optimized and the main analytical characteristics were determined. For all the methods detection limits and repeatability of the results are close. An exception is dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction with slightly higher detection limits. An extraction is especially fast using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and dispersion-solidification liquid-liquid microextraction. The most time-consuming method is liquid phase microextraction based on the solidification of a floating drop. All the methods are suitable for clean sample extraction. For the extraction from complex matrices the most suitable methods are headspace solid phase microextraction and hollow fibre liquid phase microextraction. The prepared microextraction techniques were applied for water and snow... [to full text]

In this thesis, it is shown how aflatoxins can be determined in biological material. The thesis is a summary of five papers. Aflatoxins are carcinogenic mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus moulds. Methods were developed for the determination of aflatoxins in samples of airborne dust and human urine collected at feed factories. For the dust samples from such agricultural products as copra, cotton seed and maize, methods were developed for the determination of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2. For urine samples, methods were developed for analysing the four aflatoxins above that naturally occur in dust, and the metabolites aflatoxins M1 and Q1. Sample preparation of dust samples included solvent extraction, filtration and immunoaffinity column extraction. Urine samples were cleaned up using immunoaffinity column extraction or solid-phase extraction using ethyl bonded-phase columns. All extractions with these columns were automated by means of a laboratory robot. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography was used to separate the aflatoxins in the cleaned-up extracts. Detection was performed by fluorescence after post-column derivatization by addition of bromine. Parameters for the derivatization were studied using factorial designs. To confirm the identity of aflatoxins in naturally contaminated airborne dust samples and spiked urine, liquid chromatography was combined with electrospray mass spectrometry. The detection limits of the aflatoxins in dust samples were in the range 1.8-3.1 ng/g in 10-mg dust samples using fluorescence detection. Aflatoxins were determined in spiked urine down to the 6.8-18 pg/ml level. In naturally contaminated dust of copra and cotton seed, aflatoxins were detected with a content of 9-50 pg/mg of aflatoxin Bi. No aflatoxins could be detected in any urine sample obtained from feed factory workers that were less than 6.8 pg/ml of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 and less than 18 pg/ml of aflatoxins M1 and Q1. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

Tyrimo objektas – kraujo plazma su vaistinių medžiagų mišiniu (buspirono hidrochloridu ir fluoksetino hidrochloridu). Šio tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti tinkamiausias ekstrakcijos sąlygas, reikalingas vaistų mišinio (buspirono ir fluoksetino) išskyrimui iš kraujo plazmos bei pritaikyti efektyviosios skysčių chromatografijos metodiką vaistų mišinio veikliųjų junginių identifikavimui ir kiekio nustatymui. Darbo uždaviniai buvo pritaikyti ir validuoti efektyviosios skysčių chromatografijos metodiką; išskirti buspirono ir fluoksetino vaistų mišinį iš kraujo plazmos skysčių – skysčių (SSE) ir kietafazės ekstrakcijos (KFE) metodais; optimizuoti geriausią ekstrakcijos metodą. Tyrimo metu buvo pritaikyta ESC metodika buspirono ir fluoksetino identifikavimui ir kiekio nustatymui. Atlikta ESC metodikos validacija: įrodytas specifiškumas, rezultatų glaudumas, remiantis koreliacijos koeficientu (R2) įvertintas metodikos teisiškumas, buspirono ir fluoksetino koreliacijos koeficientai atitinkamai lygūs 0,9997 ir 0,9998. Nustatytos aptikimo ribos (buspironui 0,4 µg/ml, fluoksetinui 0,75 µg/ml) ir nustatymo ribos (buspironui 0,75 µg/ml, fluoksetinui 1 µg/ml). Vaistinių medžiagų mišinys išskirtas iš kraujo plazmos SSE ir KFE metodais. Nustatyta, kad KFE yra greitesnis ir tikslesnis metodas lyginant su SSE, todėl KFE pasirinkta tolesniam metodo optimizavimui. Eksperimentai atlikti su 6 organiniais tirpikliais (metanoliu, etanoliu, propanoliu, trichlormetanu, dichlormetanu ir acetonitrilu)... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of study – human plasma with the mix of two drugs (buspirone hydrochloride and fluoxetine hydrochloride). The aim of this study was to determine extraction conditions for buspirone and fluoxetine isolation from human plasma and to apply high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for quantitative analysis of the drugs after extraction. The objective was to apply and validate HPLC procedure; to extract buspirone and fluoxetine from human plasma by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid phase extraction (SPE); to optimize efectiveness extraction method. The HPLC method for identification and quantitative analysis of drugs was optimized. The mobile phase was 0,1 per cent of trifluoroacetic acid and acetonitrile.Validation of the HPLC method was carried out. The specificity, precision, linearity, limits of detection (buspirone 0,4 µg/ml, fluoxetine 0,75 µg/ml) and quantification (buspirone 0,75 µg/ml, fluoxetine 1 µg/ml) were determined. Validate HPLC method was applied for analysis of buspirone and fluoxetine after extraction. Drugs were extracted from human plasma by LLE and SPE methods. The best recovery of analites gave SPE methods. The recoveries of the drugs using six different organic solvents (methanol, propanol, ethanol, trichloromethane, dichloromethane, acetonitrile) were examined. Selected the most appropriate environment (acidify) for methanol and the methanol percentage of the elution solvent (80 per cent). Selected two of the most appropriate... [to full text]

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) has been widely used in a variety of sample matrices and proven to be a simple, fast and solvent-free sample preparation technique. A challenging limitation in the further development of this technique has been the insufficient sensitivity for some trace applications. This limitation lies mainly in the small volume of the extraction phase. According to the fundamentals of SPME, different strategies can be employed to achieve higher sensitivity for SPME sampling. These include cooling down the extraction phase, preparing a high capacity particle-loading extraction phase, as well as using a thin film with high surface area-to-volume ratio as the extraction phase. In this thesis, four sampling approaches were developed for high sensitivity sampling by employing cold fiber, thin film, cooling membrane and particle loading membrane as sampling tools. These proposed methods were applied to liquid, solid and particularly trace gas analysis. First, a fully automated cold fiber device that improves the sensitivity of the technique by cooling down the extraction phase was developed. This device was coupled to a GERSTEL® MultiPurpose Sampler (MPS 2), and applied to the analysis of volatiles and semi-volatiles in aqueous and solid matrices. The proposed device was thoroughly evaluated for its extraction performance, robustness, reproducibility and reliability by gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS). The evaluation of the automated cold fiber device was carried out using a group of compounds characterized by different volatilities and polarities. Extraction efficiency and analytical figures of merit were compared to commercial SPME fibers. In the analysis of aqueous standard samples, the automated cold fiber device showed a significant improvement in extraction efficiency when compared to commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and non-cooled cold fiber. This was achieved due to the low temperature of the coating during sampling. Results from the cold fiber and commercial divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) fiber analysis of solid sample matrices were obtained and compared. Results demonstrated that the temperature gap between the sample matrix and the coating significantly improved the distribution coefficient, and consequently, the extraction amount. The newly automated cold fiber device presents a platform for headspace analysis of volatiles and semi-volatiles for a large number of samples, with improved throughput and sensitivity. Thin film microextraction (TFME) improves the sensitivity by employing a membrane with a high surface area-to-volume ratio as the extraction phase. In Chapter 3, a simple non-invasive sample preparation method using TFME is proposed for sampling volatile skin emissions. Evaluation experiments were conducted to test the reproducibility of the sampling device, the effect of the membrane size, and the method for storage. Results supported the reproducibility of multi-membrane sampling, and demonstrated that sampling efficiency can be improved using a larger membrane. However, ability to control the sampling environment and time was proved to be critical in order to obtain reliable information; the in vivo skin emission sampling was also influenced by skin metabolism and environmental conditions. Next, the method of storage was fully investigated for the membrane device before and after sampling. This investigation of storage permitted the sampling and instrument analysis to be conducted at different locations. Finally, the developed skin sampling device was applied in the identification of dietary biomarkers after garlic and alcohol ingestion. In this experiment, the previously reported potential biomarkers dimethyl sulphone, allyl methyl sulfide and allyl mercaptan were detected after garlic intake, and ethanol was detected after the ingestion of alcohol. Experiments were also conducted in the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from upper back, forearm and back thigh of the body on the same individual. Results showed that 27 compounds can be detected from all of the 3 locations. However, these compounds were quantitatively different. In addition, sampling of the upper back, where the density of sebaceous glands is relatively high, detected more compounds than the other regions. In Chapter 4, a novel sample preparation method that combines the advantages of cold fiber and thin film was developed to achieve the high extraction efficiency necessary for high sensitivity gas sampling. A cooling sampling device was developed for the thin film microextraction. Method development for this sampling approach included evaluation of membrane temperature effect, membrane size effect, air flow rate and humidity effect. Results showed that high sensitivity for equilibrium sampling can be achieved by either cooling down the membrane and/or using a large volume extraction phase. On the other hand, for pre-equilibrium extraction, in which the extracted amount was mainly determined by membrane surface area and diffusion coefficient, high sensitivity was obtained by thin membranes with a large surface area and/or high sampling flow rate. In addition, humidity evaluations showed no significant effect on extraction efficiency due to the absorption property of the liquid extraction phase. Next, the limit of detection (LOD) and reproducibility of the developed cooling membrane gas sampling method were evaluated. LOD with a membrane radius of 1 cm at room temperature sampling were 9.24 ng/L, 0.12 ng/L, 0.10 ng/L for limonene, cinnamaldehyde and 2-pentadecanone, respectively. Intra- and inter-membrane sampling reproducibility had a relative standard deviation (RSD%) lower than 8% and 13%, respectively. Results uniformly demonstrated that the proposed cooling membrane device could serve as a powerful tool for gas in trace analysis. In Chapter 5, a particle-loading membrane was developed to combine advantages of high distribution coefficient and high surface area geometry, and applied in trace gas sampling. Bar coating, a simple and easy preparation method was applied in the preparation of the DVB/PDMS membrane. Membrane morphology, particle ratio, membrane size and extraction efficiency were fully evaluated for the prepared membrane. Results show that the DVB particles are uniformly distributed in the PDMS base. The addition of a DVB particle enhanced the stiffness of the membrane to some extent, and improved the extraction capacity of the membrane. Extraction capacity for benzene was enhanced by a factor of 100 when the membrane DVB particle ratio increased from 0% to 30%. Additionally, the prepared DVB/PDMS membrane provided higher extraction efficiency than pure PDMS membrane and DVB/PDMS fiber, especially for highly volatile and polar compounds. The high reproducibility of the prepared DVB/PDMS membrane in air sampling demonstrated the advantage of the bar coating preparation method, and also permitted quantitative analysis. Last, the prepared particle-loading membrane was applied to semi-quantitative and quantitative analysis of indoor and outdoor air, respectively. Both the equilibrium calibration method and diffusion-based calibration method were proposed for the quantitative analysis. Results showed that the high capacity particle-loading membrane can be used for monitoring trace analytes such as perfume components and air pollutants.