Coupled Subcritical Water and Solid Phase Extraction for In-Situ Chemical Analysis

Leiden Measurement Technology (LMT) will design and develop a low volume analyte separation, concentration, and transfer system (ConTech), that couples a Subcritical Water (SCW) Extractor with Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) technology to extract analytes from complex host matrixes (e.g., soil, regolith, ice) and transfers them to a broad range of analytical instruments in situ. The use of SCW eliminates the need for organic solvents while allowing polarity-based separation of trace levels (ppb or below) of a broad range of inorganic and organic species. The technology will be developed to minimize mass, volume and power-usage and for compatibility with state-of-art in situ instruments currently under development by NASA including: microfluidic based systems, bioarrays, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, UV fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and mass spectroscopy. The specific objectives of the Phase I R&D effort are: 1) Assemble a compact prototype SCW-SPE system capable of extracting, separating, trapping, concentrating, and transferring/delivering soluble inorganic ions, polar organics, and non-polar organics. 2) Determine the system requirements (solid phase extraction materials, volume, geometry, temperature, flow) needed for processing Mars relevant organics in complex matrices. 3)Optimize analyte recoveries and perform an end-to-end proof-of-concept with laboratory prototype. 4)Determine power, mass and volume requirements needed to meet analytical requirements. 5) Develop a design for a Phase II system.

The proposed technology satisfies important needs described in SBIR subtopic S1.06, In Situ Sensors and Sensor Systems for Lunar and Planetary exploration, by providing a low risk technology for in situ sample extraction, manipulation, storage and transfer. The technology will be developed to support state-of-art instruments currently under development by NASA and suitable for in situ analysis of regolith (e.g., Mars, Lunar) and ice (e.g., Mars, Lunar, Comets, Europa).

ConTech chemical extraction, concentration, storage and transfer technology will have many commercial uses. The technology has numerous potential pharmaceutical, chemical, environmental, and medical applications. LMT envisions a product line of application specific replaceable ConTech cartridges that interface with commercial analytical instruments.

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