Capillary flow injection: Performance under pressure Original Research Article

Some of the pressure and mixing limitations of capillary flow-injection systems using pressure-induced flow are described. The benefits of low dispersion and small sample and reagent volumes must be weighed against some of the limitations by potential users. The maximum pressure output of conventional peristaltic or syringe pumps can limit the flow rates through microbore capillaries or the types of solutions that can be pumped. Likewise, the peak variance in capillary systems can become limited by injection, detection and connector contributions. Mixing can also be inefficient with capillary systems. Potential solutions to these problems with a new generation of flow-injection instrumentation are discussed along with the trade-offs involved.