New generation of sequential injection chromatography: Great enhancement of capabilities of separation using flow analysis

Abstract

Since its inception, sequential injection chromatography (SIC) has evolved through several stages. Key moments including introduction of the novel technique combining sequential injection analysis and monolithic column, the first generation of commercial SIC system employing robust pump, the utilization of columns packed with fused-core particles, the on-line hyphenation of extraction and separation steps in SIC, are now followed by the second generation of commercial SIC system employing stainless steel syringe pump and parts optimized for chromatographic separation. The key developments always mean acceleration of the evolution by opening new avenues and reduction of compromises in automated analytical methods based on the flow analysis. The updates, new features, and prospects of the novel instrument are described and discussed on perspective of the method developed for extraction and separation of selected phenolic acids (gallic, protocatechuic, caffeic, p-coumaric and ferulic). The method hyphenates miniaturized on-line solid phase extraction using strong anion exchange sorbent in commercial cartridge for HPLC (20 × 1 mm) and liquid chromatography using chromatographic column (C18 50 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm particles) packed with fused-core particles in the SIC manifold. The separation in gradient mode used acetonitrile: aqueous formic acid pH 2.0 mobile phase and spectrophotometric detection at 270, 300, and 320 nm. Injected sample volumes were 200 and 500 μL. The performance of the extraction step was characterized by the recovery 94.0–107.8%, enrichment factors about 20 or 50, and the separation by peak capacities 13–34, peak symmetries 1.17–1.64, and resolutions 0.82–3.75). While using a sample volume of 200 μL, our method was characterized by the following validation parameters: LODs of 0.0075–0.03 mg L−1, LOQs of 0.025–0.10 mg L−1, calibration ranges 0.025–2.50 mg L−1 (r > 0.999), repeatability of signal at 0.50 mg L−1of RSD ≤ 1.46% (n = 6), and overall time of analysis 7.1 min. The results including pilot analysis of white and red wines demonstrated the capability of novel SIC instrument to enable fast, selective, and sensitive analysis.