Electrically enhanced microextraction for highly selective transport of three β-blocker drugs

Facilitated transport of three β-blocker drugs including atenolol (ATE), betaxolol (BET) and propranolol (PRO) was investigated under electrical field across a supported liquid membrane (SLM) using phosphoric acid derivatives as selective ion carriers, dissolved in 2-nitro phenyl octyl ether (NPOE). In the presence of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (DEHP) and tris-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP) in the membrane phase, the three β-blockers showed completely different transport behaviors which enabled highly selective separation of the drugs. Each β-blocker migrated from 3 mL of sample solutions, through a thin layer of specific organic solvent immobilized in the pores of a porous hollow fiber, and into a 15 μL acidic aqueous acceptor solution present inside the lumen of the fiber. The influences of fundamental parameters affecting the transport of target drugs including type of ion carrier for selective separation of each drug and its concentration in the membrane phase, extraction voltage, time of transport, pH of donor and acceptor phases, stirring speed of donor phase and salt effect were studied and optimized. After microextraction process, the extracts were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Under optimal conditions, ATE was selectively extracted from different saliva samples with recovery of 37%, which corresponded to preconcentration factor of 74. A good linearity was achieved for calibration curve with a coefficient of determination higher than 0.997. Limits of detection and intra-day precision (n = 3) were less than 2 μg L−1 and 8.8%, respectively.