All fluidic operations are automated except for the injection of the sample and reagents.
A Dionex autosampler was used for the injection of 10 μL per sample for chromatographic separation at 25 °C on a reversed-phase XBridge C18 150 × 2.1 mm i.d., 3.5 μm column (Waters, Milford, MA, USA) preceded by a C18 4 × 3 mm i.d.
The oven temperature was maintained at 80 °C for 1 min following the injection of each sample and then increased to 300 °C at a rate of 15 °C/min.
The analytical conditions for injection include the injection of all samples (5 mg/mL) directly to the ion source by means of a syringe pump at flow rate (0.02 mL/min) for ten minutes.
Typically, for a 5 µl injection of sample prepared with 33 ng internal standard and reconstituted in 150 µl of 50/50 acetonitrile/H2O (v/v), the respective LOD and LOQ are 1 and 3 pg/mg dry mass.
Samples were harvested on days 1 and 3 after the injection of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (100 µl) (n = 6 for each day after injection).
The waste material was removed from the pit twice a year and injected into the cropland surrounding all sides of the confinement facility as a source of nutrients; however, at the time of sampling for this study, the injection of waste material had not been done in > 4 months.
The fluidic system is based on a miniature manifold which is based on mechanically milled channels for injection of samples and buffers.
From SEM micrographs, it reveals that the GFs distribute uniformly within the PPS matrix for samples prepared by the hot press method, while gradient distributions of GFs are found for the injection method samples.
A 60 Watts CO2 laser cutting machine is used for cutting the injection molded samples of polycarbonate sheet with the thickness of 3.2 mm.
The injection volume of samples was 50 μL.
