Chapter 2: Carbon Nanomaterials in Sample Preparation

Nanoscience and nanotechnology, which refer to the design, building, manipulation, and understanding of materials and systems at the nanoscale (sizes ranging from approximately 1 nm to 100 nm, in general) are currently at an extremely high level of development. Proof of this is that nanomaterials have found a very important place in a wide variety of areas, including analytical chemistry and, in particular, sample preparation procedures, as a result of their high porosity, high surface-to-volume ratio and ability to establish different types of interactions. Among them, carbon-based nanomaterials alone (i.e. carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, graphene, carbon nanohorns and nanodiamonds) or combined with others, have been successfully used as extraction or clean-up sorbents under different modes, which has widely expanded their application range. This chapter is aimed at providing a general overview of the different sample pre-treatments in which carbon-based nanomaterials have been applied, with special emphasis on the most recent applications.