On September 13-15, 2022, at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Czech Republic, you could meet Ph.D. students, or young researchers from many countries, Poland, Spain, France, Estonia, Turkey, or distant Kazakhstan and Thailand. Under the support of the European Chemical Society EuChemS, DAC Analytical Chemistry Division, Sample Preparation Study Group, the Summer School 2022 entitled Automation and Miniaturization of Sample Preparation Methods was held here.
As part of the summer school, the participants took part in a rich professional program, which included lectures and workshops focused on selected areas of modern sample preparation for analysis.
On the first day, participants were introduced to the use of supercritical fluids in extraction procedures. The theoretical and practical aspects of supercritical fluid extraction were summarized in online lecture by prof. Charlotta Turner from Lund University in Sweden. During the workshop, the participants were introduced to SFE instrumentation and tried filling the extraction cell and the extraction itself. During the seminar dedicated to the principles of green chemistry, they discussed the possibilities of evaluating sample preparation and various extraction procedures. The second day of the Summer School was dedicated to the automation of solid sorbent extraction (SPE) in liquid chromatography using different types of sorbents. SPE extraction automated in a low-pressure flow system was also presented. Both topics were practically demonstrated at the afternoon workshop, where participants tried filling SPE columns with different nanofibrous materials. The last day was devoted to automation in sequential injection analysis systems with an emphasis on the possibilities of automating liquid extraction in various miniaturized formats. The workshop covered a similar topic and was supplemented by the preparation of pipette tips as a miniaturized form of SPE.
The program was complemented by a social evening at the Garden of Medicinal Plants. We believe that the participants of the summer school took away a lot of new knowledge and experience, not only from the lectures and workshops, but also from the discussions that accompanied the entire program.
