4. Miniaturized analysis techniques

4.1 Separative microsystems

A particularly interesting approach to the characterization of chemical species in the context of green analytical chemistry, already discussed in previous sections, is the miniaturization of analytical techniques. Over the past decade, the development of integrated analytical systems, also known as Micro Total Analytical Systems (µTAS) or Lab-on-chip, has taken miniaturization a step further. Lab-on-chips consist of miniaturized devices that include all or part of the analytical process steps (sample preparation, separation, detection). These small-scale analytical microsystems (a few centimetres in size) can integrate, in microchannels of a few tens of micrometres, the various stages of preparation (micro-extraction, for example) and separation (such...