Sample Handling and Pretreatment Using Flow Injection Analysis

Abstract

Flow injection analysis (FIA) has been demonstrated to be an ideal tool for the handling and pretreatment of samples prior to their analysis. Sample handling may be as simple as the use of FIA for the introduction of the sample into a detector or as complicated as extraction of an analyte followed by back extraction prior to reaction and detection. In this survey, it is shown that FIA can encompass a large diversity of sample handling and pretreatment techniques. By employing FIA methods, one is able to significantly increase the sample throughput and, in many cases, increase the overall precision compared with batch style sampling, pretreatment, and analysis schemes. FIA sample handling and pretreatment techniques reviewed here include injection, dilution, membrane techniques, solvent extraction, and sorbent extraction/preconcentration.