Pharmaceutica Analytica Acta

Abstracto

Commentary on Advances in the Hyphenation of Flow Analysis Techniques with Liquid Separations for PharmaceuticalAnalysis

Anastasios Economou*

This commentary critically discusses the main advances in the field of flow analysis techniques hyphenated with liquid separations for pharmaceutical analysis over the last 15 years.Flow analysis techniques provide a convenient way to perform chemical assays withsignificant benefitsintermsofrapidity, simplicityandcost of instrumentation, economy, precision, versatility in sample handling and potential for automation. The first-generation flow injection analysis (FIA), developed in the 1970’s, has been supplemented by a host of second-generation and third-generation flowmethods developed inthe 1990’s and2000’s suchas sequential injection analysis (SIA) and multi-syringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA) [1]. However, the main drawback of these techniques is theirlimitedability to simultaneouslydetermine severalanalytes. Therefore, the hyphenation of flow techniques with separation techniques is a very attractive because it enables multi-component analysis. It was the introduction of monolithic columns [2]that has made possible the direct coupling of flowtechniques with liquid separations platforms and has led to the development of hyphenated approaches such as FIC, SIC and MSC [3-5].