Automated Extraction and Analysis from 40ml Vials

Martin Perkins

6th July 2011


GERSTEL MPS configured for extractions using 40 mL VOA vials

Tray and agitator for 40ml vials

Automated extraction and injection from 2ml and 20ml vials has always been possible using the GERSTEL Multi Purpose Sampler, however sometimes 20ml vials are just too small for the job in hand. If you click on this link, you can see a brief video (about 36 seconds long) that shows a 40ml vial system working: 40mL VOA vial system video
Bob Collins, president of GERSTEL USA, paid Anatune a visit this week and he showed me a very neat and very well worked-out solution using 40ml vials. Once samples have been placed into the vials by the analyst, the system adds internal standard and extracting solvent to the vial, mixes the vial contents and injects an alloquot of the extract into the GC. There are a number of things I really like about this system:

  1. The system uses standard, wide-mouth 40ml screw-top vials, but with the new Polymag caps. These are made from a unique magnetic plastic formulation and enable vials be transported by the robot. These caps screw onto the vials, so with no crimping required, that’s one less thing to go wrong.
  2. The system includes a new four position agitator for 40ml vials, so mixing of samples is possible and several vials can be mixed at the same time.
  3. The use of the dilutor tool enables a small volume of internal standard to be added, followed by large volume of solvent – all in one slug. This saves a lot of time.
  4. The use of “Prep-Ahead” in the Maestro software means that the system is working on several samples at the same time. This saves hours from the run-time of each batch of samples.

The special hardware used in this solution was engineered by GERSTEL in Germany and this solution (and an infinity of variations on the same theme) are now available from Anatune and other GERSTEL distributors, Worldwide.

If you want to know more, please reply to this post or email: enquiries@anatune.co.uk