Polymer monolithic capillary microextraction on-line coupled with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry for the determination of trace Au and Pd in biological samples

A novel method based on on-line polymer monolithic capillary microextraction (CME)-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed for the determination of trace Au and Pd in biological samples. For this purpose, poly(glycidyl methacrylate-ethylene dimethacrylate) monolith was prepared and functionalized with mercapto groups. The prepared monolith exhibited good selectivity to Au and Pd, and good resistance to strong acid with a long life span. Factors affecting the extraction efficiency of CME, such as sample acidity, sample flow rate , eluent conditions and coexisting ion interference were investigated in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the limits of detection (LODs, 3σ) were 5.9   ng   L −   1 for Au and 8.3   ng   L −   1 for Pd, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, c   =   50   ng   L   −1 , n   =   7) were 6.5% for Au and 1.1% for Pd, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of Au and Pd in human urine and serum samples with the recovery in the range of 84–118% for spiked samples. The developed on-line polymer monolithic CME-ICP-MS method has the advantages of rapidity, simplicity, low sample/reagent consumption, high sensitivity and is suitable for the determination of trace Au and Pd in biological samples with limited amount available and complex matrix.