Trace Element Determination and Sample Preparation in Water, Food, and Biological Matrices
This research community develops methods to isolate, concentrate, and measure trace levels of elements and organic compounds in complex samples, primarily to ensure safety in drinking water, food, and pharmaceuticals.
The work centers on sample preparation techniques that enrich analytes before detection. Recurring methods include solid-phase extraction, dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, and the use of deep eutectic solvents and magnetic nanomaterials to concentrate targets. Detection is dominated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectrometry, and optical emission spectrometry. Applications focus heavily on quantifying heavy metals like cadmium, lead, and nickel in water and food samples, as well as detecting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pharmaceutical residues. Graphene oxide and other nanomaterials frequently serve as sorbents to improve sensitivity and selectivity in these extraction processes.
The community’s output is distributed across many elements, with the highest shares found in cadmium research (1.4% of all cadmium papers), lead (1.2%), and nickel (1.1%). While carbon has the highest absolute number of papers in this group (3,711), it represents a smaller share of total carbon research (0.4%) compared to these heavier metals.
The community comprises 37,245 papers, publishing most frequently in Analytica Chimica Acta, Analytical Chemistry, and Talanta. Recent work continues to focus on sustainable extraction methods, such as using biopolymers and green nanocomposites, and applies these techniques to quantify toxic elements in food, pharmaceutical impurities in drugs, and persistent organic pollutants in beverages and milk.