Continuous sampling and analysis by on-chip liquid/solid chromatography

This paper describes a lab-on-a-chip device for continuous liquid/solid chromatography measurements. Chromatographic separations of phenolic test solutions as well as of vitamins are illustrating the ability and versatility of the system. The dependence of the peak height and width with respect to the injected plug and the saturation limits of the microchip column have been investigated and good correlation to the theoretical predictions have been observed. The focus of the system design is on simplification of both fabrication complexity and application. To this end, large bore flow-through fluid introduction channels have been integrated onto the chip to allow aliquoting from meso-scale flows of sample (up to tens of milliliters per minute). Repeatable plug injections and reproducible chromatographic separations were achieved in an open-tubular on-chip microcolumn with Cs stationary phase coating. The entire system allows for a rapid cycle time for multiple analyses, exchange of analyte and mobile phase in less than a minute, and complete cleaning cycles within a few seconds only. This makes it a suitable candidate for on-line process analysis applications. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.