For decades, sample preparation has been the analytical lab’s most persistent bottleneck. It is heavily reliant on single-use plastics, dependent on hazardous solvents, and notoriously difficult to automate. Despite advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry and ultra-fast chromatography, the front end of the analytical workflow remains anchored in the past.
According to Dr. Janusz Pawliszyn, inventor of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and a pioneering voice in green analytical chemistry, the problem is not a lack of scientific advancement but a reluctance to fundamentally rethink the tools we use.
“Technology for sample preparation was primarily designed by those working in industry, using very simple concepts,” Dr. Pawliszyn explains, referring to legacy techniques such as liquid-liquid extraction. “If they miniaturize these technologies to make them greener, they could reduce the volume of samples and solvents.”
As labs across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and food testing sectors face mounting pressure to adopt sustainable practices without sacrificing data quality, the industry is approaching a tipping point. The physical consumables that define sample preparation are not just shrinking; they are being entirely reimagined.
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The Scientific Failure of Legacy Consumables
The traditional approach to sample preparation, such as liquid-liquid extraction or protein precipitation, relies on exhaustive extraction, a process Dr. Pawliszyn argues is largely unnecessary and scientifically restrictive.
“Solvent extraction itself causes trouble because it moves all the analytes into the solvent, destroying the sample,” observes Pawliszyn. “You get a lot of lipid interference. When you try to analyze this mixture, you have a complexity too difficult to deal with, and you dirty the instruments.”
Single-use solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges attempt to solve this but suffer from similar systemic flaws. Because they rely on exhaustive extraction and solvents, the cartridges become contaminated and must be disposed of after a single use.
“When you pass the sample through the cartridge with the sorbent, you filter it, too,” he warns, noting how complex biological matrices inadvertently clog the devices. “Small fragments of cell membranes are trapped there, and when you do solvent desorption, you have a problem—you get garbage and carryover.”
Ultimately, optimizing a flawed system is a losing battle. “The idea of going to a smaller dimension of SPE cartridges doesn't solve the problem fundamentally,” Pawliszyn notes. “You need a fundamental change in thinking.”
The Paradigm Shift: Extraction as a Sensor
If the legacy model is broken, what replaces the disposable cartridge? Pawliszyn’s life's work points to a model in which sample preparation mimics the elegance of a simple sensor.
“You know how a sensor works—you have something like a pH electrode, you put it in the sample, and you get the readout,” he details. SPME operates on the same logic, but instead of an immediate electrical readout, the physical device collects the target compounds. “We use the strategy of sample preparation as a sensor. We collect the small molecular weight chemical components present in a sample on this probe having porous biocompatible surface and then, after removing by rinsing the unwanted macromolecular material from the surface, inject it into the instrument.” By coupling SPME with LC/GC-MS, researchers can obtain more comprehensive chemical information than is accessible with conventional sensors.
Because the process relies on chemical equilibrium rather than exhaustive solvent extraction, the result is a clean sample, a protected instrument, and a consumable that can be reused up to 1,000 times in applications such as GC headspace analysis.
The analytical validity of this approach is well-documented. “Recently, we analyzed meat for the presence of contaminant residues. We used this probe-like a sensor: we put it in the meat, took it out, rinsed it, and in the instrument, we got the exact same results as grinding the meat, freeze-drying it, and doing a lot of extraction,” he shares. The success of this workflow directly challenges the commercial sector's adherence to laborious, multi-step protocols.
The Automation Advantage
While academic innovation has proven solvent-free, reusable techniques are viable, commercial labs have been slow to adapt.
Part of the resistance is commercial. Traditional extraction workflows represent a highly lucrative revenue stream for manufacturers of disposable consumables. “They don't want to see anything else because it competes with their product,” Pawliszyn asserts of established consumable vendors. “They are afraid they make more money on the consumables for QuEChERS than they would make for such probes.”
However, there is also a practical shift required at the bench. Exhaustive solvent extractions are "forgivable," meaning a technician might achieve imprecise recovery and still consider the extraction complete. SPME and equilibrium methods require strict adherence to the optimized protocol.
Yet, this demand for precision is exactly why these evolved consumables are the future of high-throughput labs. “Robots are precise. They are doing one procedure exactly the same as the others,” Pawliszyn points out. “In our case, you have a clean sample going to the instrument and easy automation—just moving the probe from the sample into the instrument after rinsing it.” In addition, the SPME technology facilitates further enhancement of throughput by adopting direct SPME-MS approaches aided by its clean features, resulting in elimination of chromatography, while its portability and on-site deployment can be materialized through integration with miniaturized MS instruments1,2.
The Future of the Bench
If physical consumables are going to remain a part of analytical workflows, they must evolve to be simpler and greener.
“The simpler, the better. Not only simpler in design, but simpler in process,” emphasizes Pawliszyn. “That means, in a single step, you put the probe into the sample, take it out, rinse it, and put it in the instrument. This is the only thing you should have to do.”
For lab managers bound by tight budgets and compliance regulations, the transition to greener consumables is ultimately a cost-saving measure. Simplifying the process inherently reduces the consumption of disposable supplies.
To help labs navigate this transition and evaluate new technologies, Pawliszyn points to resources such as the journal Green Analytical Chemistry, for which he serves as Editor-in-Chief. The publication utilizes a "Green Matrix" to objectively measure the environmental impact of various analytical protocols.
“This provides valuable guidance for the industry,” he suggests. “By consulting these evaluations, labs can clearly determine which methods are genuinely green and which are not.”
Ultimately, Pawliszyn believes the responsibility for driving this change lies with the end users—the industry labs.
“It is the industry's responsibility to explore these alternatives,” he advises, speaking to lab managers in pharma, food, and biotech. “If labs want to meet their sustainability goals, they must take the initiative. We cannot wait for traditional consumable manufacturers to drive this change, as their focus is naturally on established revenue streams. Instead, end-users should actively encourage regulatory agencies to validate these greener technologies, which are already fully developed and ready to use.”
References
Jiang RW, Zhou W, Cypel M, et al. Minimally Invasive Chemical Biopsy Needle with Self-Wettable Extraction Phase For In Vivo Tissue Sampling During Medical Procedures. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026;13(1):e00396. doi:10.1002/advs. 202500396
Wei Zhou, Janusz Pawliszyn. Non-exhaustive microextraction as a step towards more sustainable chemical analysis in the field and the clinic. ChemRxiv. 11 May 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.15002968/v1
