Separation technology-related miniaturisation and – fingerprints in pharmaceutical analysis

In chemical analysis, and more specifically in the pharmaceutical field, using separation techniques, two tendencies are currently growing interest. On the one hand, techniques are being miniaturized, on the other complete chromatograms or electropherograms, instead of individual peaks, are used to extract relevant information. The development and data-analysis of fingerprints can be classified within the latter. With fingerprints, chromatograms or electropherograms are indicated that display an often complex peak pattern that is characteristic for a given (type of) sample. This projects aims to perform investigations on both tendencies in order to achieve, in the ultimate case, fingerprints by means of miniaturized techniques. Both research topics are currently experiencing some problems, and it will be tried to find some solutions within this project. The considered miniaturized techniques are capillary electrochromatography (CEC), pressurized capillary electrochromatography (p-CEC) and CEC on chips (chip-CEC). They are currently characterized by some technological problems situated at the level of column fabrication and robustness. It is the intention to fabricate within this project more robust columns than those currently available, and to develop some applications on it (fingerprints in the ultimate, most complex situation). Regarding fingerprints, one must have a simple methodology to develop fingerprints containing as much information as possible, while in a second instance the obtained fingerprints must be submitted to proper data-analysis techniques. The latter is dependant on the goals and each time a selection must be made from the extensive collection of potentially applicable chemometric techniques.