Think Big but Design Small, a Path to Modern Analytical Chemistry
Janusz Pawliszyn, University of Waterloo, Department of Chemistry, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1

The presentation summarises my involvement in different areas of Analytical Chemistry leading to miniaturized portable devices and on-side applications.  My early work as new faculty in 1980’s on application of technologies developed at that time for communication industry including LEDs, laser diodes, imaging semiconductor arrays and optical fibers are discussed.  This work led to construction of different microfluidics devices including whole column imaging detection (WCID) system applied in successful “now gold standard” analytical CIEF/WCID instrument widely used in biotech industry for antibody QC and product development.   The research on optical fibers lead to development of the SPME technology presently used around globe in number of laboratory and on-site applications.  Recent developments of new morphologies of extracting materials and novel sampling configurations as well as approaches compatible with high throughput lab and/or on-site determinations are outlined.  The recent development of matrix compatible SPME coating lead to interesting features experienced during extraction, some of them not anticipated.  They are not limited to elimination of fouling and saturation effects during direct SPME of complex samples, but also balance coverage property, enabling “via free form” clean extraction of small molecules widely varying in physical properties leading to some interesting applications.  For example, on-site sampling, in-vivo metabolomics, and rapid screening via direct coupling of sample preparation to mass spectrometry were facilitated by this development.

To view graphics of two articles that were used by Analytical Chemistry as cover pages visit Anal. Chem. 2017, 89, 8021−8026 and 89, 3805−3809.