Separations performed on microchips

As with other analytical methods discussed elsewhere in this report, chromatographic and electroseparation systems can be conducted in miniaturised flow-channels formed into a glass or polymeric microchip.  With these devices, extremely rapid and low cost separations can be performed, often with disposable microchips.  Australia currently has little research representation in this field and research in microchip separations is a high priority.  Manufacturing facilities are already in place in the form of micro technology research facilities and these can be adapted easily to support microchip separation science research.  A research facility for working with microchips has recently been completed at the University of Tasmania, so Australia is well positioned to move strongly into this field.  It should also be noted that microchip separations offer the opportunity to construct portable instrumentation for field-based separations.  Such instrumentation is required to improve the speed of response for analyses and to eliminate sample adulteration during transport.  Many applications exist in areas such as forensic science, clinical analysis and environmental analysis.

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