Care and use manual – Waters Oasis Glass Cartridges User Manual
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[ Care and Use ManUal ]
Oasis HLB Glass Cartridges
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II. QuICk start sPe ProCedure
I. If desired, add 10 to 50 μL of internal standard to the sample
(soil, food and other solid samples require pretreatment before 
SPE).
2. Adjust the sample to pH 3.
3. Place (Oasis HLB extraction cartridges on vacuum manifoldand
set vacuum to approximately 5” Hg. The extraction procedure 
can also be done by positive pressure using the 5 cc Teflon 
adaptors (part number 405000934).
No individual stopcocks are necessary
4. Solid-Phase Extraction Procedure: The following simple protocol
should be used in preparing and using the cartridges for the 
isolation of a wide spectrum of acidic, basic, and neutral 
analytes especially many classes of endocrine disruptors.
No step should be omitted.
Procedure optimization is discussed in Section III.
Note: Once the HLB sorbent has been conditioned and 
equilibrated, there is no need to keep the cartridges wet prior to 
sample loading. Maintain a continuous vacuum on all cartridges 
throughout steps 4a-4d This convenience will save you time.
Note: For the load and elute steps, the recommended flow rate 
is 10 mL/min for 5 cc cartridges. You may need to momentarily 
increasethe vacuum to start the flow of aqueous solutions.
4a. Condition: Add to and draw through each cartridge 5-10 mL
10% methanol in methyl tertbutyl ether (MtBE) and then 3 mL 
methanol.
4b. Equilibrate: 3 mL water
4c. Load: Draw sample through the cartridge. The maximum recom-
mended sample volume is 1 L for 5 cc cartridges.
4d. Wash: Add to and draw through each cartridge 3 mL of 5%
methanol in water (v/v). Release vacuum, remove manifold 
cover, and discard waste fluids. Insert rack containing collection 
vessels, replace cover, and turn on vacuum.
4e. Elute: Add to and draw through each cartridge 6 mL 10%
methanol in MtBE, If desired, evaporate eluates to dryness.
5. Reconstitute in acetonitrile and adjust to the mobile phase
concentration for LC analysis.
6. For GC analysis dry extract over sodium sulfate and reconstitute
to 1 mL.
III. adjustments to oPtImIze reCoverIes
Spike an appropriate volume of reagent water (for general analysis) 
or PBS (for biological fluids analysis) with all analytes and internal/
surrogate standards. For preparation of PBS solution see Section IV. 
Follow steps 4a-4e in Section II, but use a rack to collect the eluates 
in the Load (4c), Wash (4d), and Elute (4e) steps in separate collec-
tion vessels. In addition, repeat step 4e with a second portion of 
elution solvent and collect the eluate. Analyze all four collected 
fractions. Use the table to determine adjustments, if necessary, to 
optimize sample recovery.
If the fraction 
from this step 
contains the 
analyte:
Make this adjustment for optimum sample recovery:
Load (4c)
The Oasis HLB sorbent has been found to retain ionized 
analytes more strongly than silica-based reversed-phase 
sorbents. However, recoveries may be enhanced when 
analyte ionization is suppressed. For acidic analytes, 
adjust the sample pH to at least two pH units below the 
pKa of the acid. For basic analytes, adjust the pH to at 
least two pH units above the pKa of the conjugate acid.
Wash (4d)
Recoveries of very polar analytes can be increased by 
using only 1 mL of water (not 5% methanol in water) as 
the wash solution.
First Elution 
(4e)
If an acceptable recovery of analyte(s) is obtained in this 
fraction (usually > 90%), no adjustments are necessary.
Second 
Elution 
(4e repeated)
For very nonpolar analytes, stronger solvents such as 
acetonitrile, methylene chloride or ethyl acetate may be 
substituted, or used in sequence. In addition, for ionizable 
analytes, methanol may needed to be modified with the 
addition of 2% acid or 2% base, as appropriate. If solvents 
stronger than methanol or acetonitrile are used for the 
elution, then a preliminary conditioning step (see step 4a) 
should be performed prior to the methanol conditioning 
step. For example, if ethyl acetate is to be used as an 
eluent, condition the cartridge with 1 mL of ethyl acetate, 
followed by 1 mL of methanol and 1 mL of water.