Microfluidic systems for process analytical technology

Microfluidic technology allows accurate handling of nl to mu l liquid volumes, in miniaturized systems in which sensing elements can be integraged which allow the study of chemical processed on-line. In this contribution the benefits of microfluidics in process analytical technology will be discussed on the basis of three examples, namely a chip with integrated electrochemical sensors for the measurement of pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen and viable biomass in fermentation batch or micro reactors, a microfluidic chip with integrated microelectronic elements to perform NMR spectrometry in less than 1 mu l sample volumes, and an electrowetting-on-dielectric based mixing device, which mixes 1 mu l droplets in less than 100 ms, and which is used to study enxyme kinetics with MALDI-TOF MS.