Miniaturization of liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry 1. Current trends on miniaturized LC columns

Over the last decade, the use of miniaturized columns in liquid chromatography (LC) has seen intense growth in a wide range of research areas. This report brings an overview of the current developments and applications of miniaturized columns in LC, focused on the type of columns used. Following a short introductory section on some theoretical aspects, the fundamental bases on their design and fabrication, new stationary phases and incorporated materials, performance evaluation/characterization, main advantages, and recent applications of filled capillary and open tubular (OT) capillary columns are introduced and critically discussed. Prospects on the different types of miniaturized columns and their hyphenation with mass spectrometry (MS) reported in the last years are also introduced and discussed. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.