Membrane-based microextraction techniques in analytical chemistry: A review

• Sample preparation step is crucial in the development of a large number of analytical methodologies.
• This review describes aspects concerning to the growth in the development and improvement of sample preparation techniques.
• Membrane-based microextraction techniques emerge as efficient, simple, low cost and environmentally friendly procedures.
• Some critical points about each discussed membrane-based microextraction techniques are presented.
• Table containing different applications of each membrane-based microextraction technique is presented.

The use of membrane-based sample preparation techniques in analytical chemistry has gained growing attention from the scientific community since the development of miniaturized sample preparation procedures in the 1990s. The use of membranes makes the microextraction procedures more stable, allowing the determination of analytes in complex and “dirty” samples. This review describes some characteristics of classical membrane-based microextraction techniques (membrane-protected solid-phase microextraction, hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction and hollow-fiber renewal liquid membrane) as well as some alternative configurations (thin film and electromembrane extraction) used successfully for the determination of different analytes in a large variety of matrices, some critical points regarding each technique are highlighted.

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