Solid Phase Microextraction-mass spectrometry: Metanoia

Abstract Although multiple investigations into the benefits of directly interfacing SPME devices to MS instrumentation for rapid analysis of complex matrices have been ongoing for over 2 decades, several external factors have contributed to keeping these developments in the shadows. Among them, one can highlight the prejudice against microextraction technologies and ambient mass spectrometry, the lack of commercially available products, and overpraising by the analytical chemistry industry in relation to other direct-sample-to-MS technologies. Despite remaining outside of the mainstream, SPME-MS technologies have been successfully applied in diverse fields including food, environmental, forensics, and clinical analysis. This mini-review provides an overview of the most thrilling advances in SPME-MS that have been documented over the last lustrum and how these innovations can be applied to challenging analytes/matrices. In addition, a humble prognosis of this exciting field is provided, including potential avenues for further exploration, as well as significant existing limitations to be overcome.