Do not mourn Nobias any longer: InertSep ME-2 is coming!

8 April 2026

Thanks to the thorough development proposed by Alifia and co-workers (2026, see reference below), the community may have a solution to the shortage of Nobias Chelate PA-1. Using a bracketing standard approach, the authors achieved simultaneous analysis of medium- to heavy-mass trace elements using small sample volumes, with high analytical precision and repeatability in natural waters across a wide range of ionic strengths.

A few words on the solid-phase extraction (SPE): 50 mL of natural water, buffered at pH 5.5 (0.1 M NH4Ac), loading flow rate 2 mL/min, elution with 3 mL of 3 M HNO3 followed by 3 mL of MQW at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min.

Analytical performance is good, with major ions (manganese, calcium, sodium and potassium) efficiently removed (~100%), repeatability and intermediate precision generally below 3–5% RSD, and recoveries close to quantitative (~95–105%), and ability to evaluate potential element fractionation during the analytical process. Let’s try it!

**Figure:** Simultaneous analysis of trace metals and rare earth elements was achieved within one running time of pre-concentration using solid-phase extraction with InertSep ME-2, combined with bracketing standard and internal standard calibration methods and ICP-MS detection.

**Figure 2:** Recovery of trace metals and rare earth elements (REEs) in MQW- and SW-based samples using the BS-method (n = 3). This figure highlights the recovery performance of the method for trace metals and rare earth elements (REEs) in both MQW and seawater (SW) matrices. The consistent recoveries across contrasting matrices indicate minimal matrix effects and demonstrate the suitability of the method for diverse natural water samples.

Reference:

Alifia, Z., Zhang, J., Haryanto, M. J., Nahar, Mst. S., & Kagaya, S. (2026). A versatile solid-phase extraction method using InertSep ME-2 for simultaneous analysis of covering medium to heavy mass trace elements in diverse water matrices. Talanta, 306, 129694. doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2026.129694

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