Extraction of dansylated amino acids using the supported liquid membrane technique

Extraction using the supported liquid membrane (SLM) technique demands conditions where the extracted compounds can be made uncharged allowing them to pass through the membrane. For amino acids, being bifunctional, such conditions can not be obtained directly. One way to overcome this problem is to block one of the functionalities by derivatization, utilising the other group for the transport. The SLM extraction of dansylated amino acids was investigated and optimized. It was possible to obtain high extraction efficiencies (>90%) for most amino acids. For amino acids with polar side chains, such high extraction efficiencies were only obtained at low analyte concentrations (<10 nmol l(-1)). For arginine and lysine, which can not be fully dansylated, no extraction was obtained.