Nanomaterials Have Come to Stay: An Overview of their Use as Sorbents in Sample Preparation

Nanomaterials occupy an important place in current research and applications in analytical chemistry and, in particular, as extraction sorbents for sample preparation. Nanomaterials are useful as sample preparation sorbents as a result of their varied morphologies, high surface area, surface-to-volume ratio, and porosity, as well as their ability to interact in a variety of ways. The sorbent-based extraction procedure in which nanomaterials have been mostly commonly applied is dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE), but these materials also have been applied in other sample preparation techniques, such as solid-phase microextraction, stir bar sorptive extraction, and matrix solid-phase dispersion. Carbon based nanomaterials are the most commonly used in sample preparation, but other types of materials used include metal organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, nanoparticles combined or modified with other materials or nanomaterials, quantum dots, electrospun nanofibers, and dendrimers.