Pressurized liquid extraction of organometals and its feasibility for total metal extraction

We give an overview of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) applied to organometal compounds for speciation studies. We also deal with the feasibility of this technique for simultaneous metal extraction.To verify the potential applicability of PLE for total metal extraction, we subjected two certified reference materials (GBW-08751 Mussel Tissue and PACS-2 Marine Sediment) to pressurized carboxylic acids. From the results, we can say that acetic acid and formic acid under pressurized conditions appear to extract metals from environmental materials.Exploiting the rapidity and the automation of PLE could be a new trend in pre-treating samples for total metal extraction.