• Monomers and odor-causing components from polymers
• Pesticides, fats, and flavours from food
• Fragrances from consumer products
• Pollutants from filters, soil, and animal tissue
• Organics from wood, charcoal, and soot.

The Supercritical Fluid Extractor technique uses a supercritical carbon dioxide as solvent. This solvent has penetration and transport properties approaching those of a gas, but it acts as a liquid when dissolving analytes from a matrix. The solvent strength of can be changed flexibly through variation of its solvent pressure/temperature. Furthermore, addition of small amounts of modifiers to the solvent: as acetone, methanol, or hexane, can alter solvent strength and introduce group selectivity. As a result, one supercritical fluid easily performs the work of many solvents.

Supercritical fluids can extract analytes from solid or semi-solid matrices faster and more effectively than classic liquid/solid extraction methods. High recoveries are provided for many analytes, and low operating temperatures make the technique ideal for thermally labile compounds.

For identification SFE is followed by GC/MS or GC/FTIR.