Stir bar sorptive extraction: Recent applications, limitations and future trends

•Summary of the most important aspect for the development of a robust method based on SBSE.•Review of the latest applications in analytical chemistry employing SBSE.•Review of the unresolved limitations and issues of SBSE.•Present and future trends in SBSE are discussed.

Stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) has generated growing interest due to its high effectiveness for the extraction of non-polar and medium-polarity compounds from liquid samples or liquid extracts. In particular, in recent years, a large amount of new analytical applications of SBSE has been proposed for the extraction of natural compounds, pollutants and other organic compounds in foods, biological samples, environmental matrices and pharmaceutical products. The present review summarizes and discusses the theory behind SBSE and the most recent developments concerning its effectiveness. In addition, the main results of recent analytical approaches and their applications, published in the last three years, are described. The advantages, limitations and disadvantages of SBSE are described and an overview of future trends and novel extraction sorbents and supports is given.

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