Applications of Miniaturized Liquid Chromatography

Despite the advantages of downscaling HPLC, neither narrow-bore nor microbore LC has become as popular as might have been expected. Instead, capillary LC using both packed capillaries and open tubular capillaries is the area of most intense research. Nevertheless, microbore and narrow-bore applications continue to appear in the literature, especially in situations where limited sample volumes restrict the scale of the separation. 

A review of HPLC methods for antiepileptic drug analysis was published in 1987 by Juergens.18 Standard analytical separations were compared with narrow-bore separations, and a 70% reduction in the cost of solvents was possible, owing to a reduction in flow rate from 1 ml/min for the analytical column to 0.3 ml/min for the narrow-bore column. Gayden et al.19 developed an isocratic method, using narrow-bore columns, to quantify adenosine (Ado) release by dispersed rat renal outer medullary cells under conditions of normoxia and hypoxia. Standard HPLC with UV detection has been the predominant method for studying the metabolic pathways of adenosine and measuring the Ado breakdown products inosine (Ino) and hypoxanthine (Hyp). However, the conventional methods lack reliability 

The 1989 European Community Water Act restricts the concentration of all pesticides in drinking water ( 500 ng/liter), and therefore sensitive, 

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