Automating the Accurate Transfer of Viscous Samples for the Completely Automated Extraction of Mycotoxins from Edible Oils

The manual transfer of liquid samples is part of daily activities throughout the analytical laboratory. The accurate and precise transfer of liquid samples can be critical to the analytical results. Liquid samples with high viscosities pose several challenges to achieving accurate and precise delivery of desired volumes. Automating the accurate transfer of such viscous liquids would lend support to the quality of the analytical procedure, help ensure the high quality of the resulting data, and free the analyst from performing a tedious manual task. A robotic autosampler commonly used for sample introduction in GC or HPLC can be used to perform a wide variety of sample preparation techniques. The sampler can be configured as part of a GC or LC system or as a stand-alone bench-top workstation. An analytical balance can be included to provide weight verification of liquid transfers. In this report, a new heated liquid syringe tool that allows viscous liquid samples to be accurately transferred is described and its performance examined. Resulting weight verification data from the performance assessment for example edible oil samples are provided. Good accuracy and precision for transferring viscous samples is demonstrated. Data is provided to demonstrate that the new heated liquid syringe tool enables completely automated extraction of mycotoxins from edible oils and LC/MS/MS analysis of the extract using a single automated analysis setup under integrated control software.