2. Sample processing in lab-on-a-chip

For the past ten years or so, the chemical industry has been developing microfluidic tools to meet the specific requirements of their field, i.e. often highly aggressive media such as organic solvents or acids (hydrometallurgy, nuclear), and extreme physical properties such as fluid viscosity, pressure and high temperatures (oil industry, hydrometallurgy). These particularities have led to the development of microfluidic systems dedicated to the elementary separative chemistry (salts, metals and radionuclides) required for sample processing. Similarly, chemical and physico-chemical characterization techniques had to be developed and adapted to the needs of the chemical industry when techniques applied to other fields where miniaturization is common (such as biotechnology) were insufficient. For example, the fluorescence used predominantly in biology and diagnostics is often incompatible...