Comparison of the performance of different silica hydride particles for the solid-phase extraction of non-volatile analytes from dark chocolate with analysis by gas chromatography–quadrupole mass spectrometry

The extraction capabilities of a Diamond Hydride™ phase, as well as silica hydride phases modified with bidentate octadecyl (BDC18), phenyl or cholesteryl groups, were evaluated for the analysis of fatty acids, amino acids, sugars and sterols in a dark chocolate extract. These batch adsorption performances were investigated using either methanol or aqueous methanol as the solvent. The compositions of the extracted fractions were assessed by gas chromatography interfaced with quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC–qMS). The batch binding propensities of the various compound classes with silica hydride particles modified with immobilised phenyl groups or larger ligands followed trends predicted from linear solvation energy relationships. Both prediction and experiment revealed that better extraction results could be obtained with the phenyl, BDC18 and cholesteryl hydride particles for the major chocolate components. Based on these results, separations in micro-pipette tip format with these three types of stationary phase particles have been undertaken.