Portable liquid chromatograph and analyses of hazardous substances

Progress in technology of microchips, batteries and LEDs in the last two decades enable development of portable instruments which can satisfy the requirements of modern liquid chromatography (LC). Application of portable LC is advantageous if simple and rapid sample treatment procedure followed by a short HPLC run can be executed in the point of sampling. Our research group have developed a concept of portable HPLC based on simple hydraulic scheme and a unique optical detector for simultaneous detection of absorbance and fluorescence of compounds eluted off microcolumn. Considering in-field analysis of hazardous substances, this instrument can be advantageous for analysis of compounds which are difficult to detect and quantify by other contemporary portable instruments utilizing different working principles due to incompatibility with their physico-chemical properties (e. g. microbial toxins)