摘要:

Miniaturisation and automation are revolutionising virtually every aspect of society. The current generation of computers is totally unrecognisable from its predecessors of 20–30 years ago and the average laptop, palmtop or mobile phone today contains more computing power than was used to put man on the moon.Slowly but surely these developments are finding their way into the chemical laboratory too. Since the 1980s we have seen the deployment of laboratory information management systems (LIMS), connecting the analytical instruments in a lab to one or more workstations or personal computers.1In the 1990s these LIMS began to be integrated with in­house software systems (“ERP systems” in the IT jargon). More recently single site systems have been linked together, using the internet and other technologies, into powerful multi­site networks.While laboratory automation helped streamline laboratory processes, particularly in terms of information flows, it had relatively little impact on the analytical processes themselves. All this is changing rapidly however. The convergence of microelectronics, nanotechnology and materials science is opening the way to a new generation of miniature analytical devices, the so­called lab­on­a­chip (LOC). This era of micro­chemistry will not only bring major changes in laboratory practices but will also open up whole new areas in chemistry itself.

ISSN:0960-7919    

DOI:10.1039/b105801k

出版商:RSC    

年代:0

数据来源: RSC

摘要:

Column Editor

ISSN:0960-7919    

DOI:10.1039/b105803g

出版商:RSC    

年代:2001

数据来源: RSC