A question for chemists:
Does acidity affect the stability of epoxy fatty acids during liquid-liquid extraction?
In other words, if formic acid was added to Ethyl Acetate before the liquid-liquid extraction of plasma, is there any possibility of a nucleophilic attack on the protonated epoxy group at pH 2.4?
Is there any possible way to figure out what is the suitable pH to avoid such scenario?
Note: The pKa of the majority of expoxy fatty acids under investigation is around 4.4. That is why, acidifying the sample before extraction should increase the extraction yield.