Alkyl diol silica: restricted access pre-column packings for fast liquid chromatography-integrated sample preparation of biological fluids

A silica-based pre-column packed with a ‘restricted access material’ was used for fully automated solid-phase extraction of drugs and metabolites from untreated biological fluids via a simple valve-switching method. The bifunctional sorbent employed, alkyl diol silica, is characterised by a different chemical modification of the outer surface (diol groups) and the pore surface of the particles (alkyl chains: C4, C8 or C18). This allows for a fast and efficient clean-up of complex biological samples, such as blood, serum, urine or milk, with exclusion of the macromolecular matrix (proteins, nucleic acids) in less than 1.5 min.