Miniaturization in Analytical Chemistry

Miniaturization is rapidly growing, with novel ideas emerging in recent years. Like other fields, analytical systems have been affected by this new technology. Concretely, the capacity to carry out laboratory operations on a small scale using miniaturized devices is very appealing. Micro total analysis systems (mTAS), also called lab-on-a-chip, have renewed interest in scaling laws in the last 10–15 years. A small scale reduces the time required to synthesize and analyze a product, as greater control of molecular interactions is achieved at the microscale level. In addition, reagent cost and the amount of chemical waste can be very much reduced. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is clear that the lab-on-a-chip approach is starting to be considered as a potential analytical tool in many application fields. Nevertheless, additional efforts must be addressed to two main points: (i) the laws at nanometre scale must be established, as basic physical and chemical fundaments cannot be applied; and (ii) more applications demonstrating the real use of these systems must be developed, particularly in the area of complex samples analysis. There is no doubt that miniaturized chemical analysis systems have a tremendous potential. For instance, it is foreseeable that such devices will allow the study and analysis of complex cellular processes, facilitate the development of new diagnostic abilities that could revolutionize medicine, and have applications in environmental monitoring, food analysis and industry. Some miniaturized analytical systems, such as capillary gas chromatography, microliquid chromatography and microcapillary electrophoresis – which can be