Trends of flow injection sample pretreatment approaching the new millennium Original Research Article

The important role of flow injection (FI) techniques for the automation, acceleration and miniaturization of solution handling in sample pretreatment as well as some recent trends in the development of the field are discussed, illustrated mainly by recent achievements in the author’s laboratory, including: (a) sample pretreatment for vapor generation and electrothermal AAS based on sequential injection (SI) techniques, with low reagent consumption and enhanced ruggedness; (b) combination of FI and SI sample pretreatment (filtration, dialysis, gas diffusion, column sorption) with capillary electrophoresis (CE) giving enhanced reproducibility and efficiency; (c) application of on-line microdialysis in in vivo monitoring of blood glucose in test animals and (d) application of on-line microdialysis and solvent extraction in continuous monitoring of drug dissolution processes with high resolution of process events. Future perspectives of FI sample pretreatment are discussed, emphasizing the improvement in ruggedness of the equipment and methods, the combination and synchronization of different means for liquid propulsion, and the development of miniaturized systems.