Coupling of micro-electromembrane extraction to transient capillary isotachophoresis for the analysis of drugs in biological samples

The diploma thesis is focused on the development of in-line micro-electromembrane extraction (EME) coupled to capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the analysis of selected drugs in body fluids. Up to now, direct coupling of EME to CE has been demonstrated on diluted river samples only [1]. Although the published set-up has been implemented within a commercial CE it suffers from several drawbacks that can have a negative impact on the analysis of samples with higher complexity. The instrumental arrangement presented in this thesis eliminates these deficiencies. The experimental part is based on the optimization of fundamental extraction and separation conditions for the analysis of model basic drugs (nortriptyline, haloperidol, loperamide) with the use of transient isotachophoresis (tITP) principle. The extraction conditions were optimized for electro-driven transport of basic analytes from complex matrices (urine) through free liquid membrane followed by injection step utilized by electrokinetic supercharging (EKS), which focused target analytes into the CE capillary. Optimized conditions have been applied on blood in the form of dry blood spots, which are highly attractive samples in the current clinical analysis. The repeatability of the measurements wa