Technological development trajectory of chromatography: main path analysis based on patent citation network

After new technology is developed in a certain field, the technology was soon reflected in the patent. Historical, descriptive analysis of patent is often used to analyze the technological development trajectory. Analytical systems plays an important role in the development of every science, including chemistry, life sciences and physics and is a collection of modern sciences and technologies reflecting the advanced achievements of chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, precision instrumentation and control, communications and informatics. Therefore, the level of analytical system development and manufacturing is becoming an important indicator of the comprehensive level of the company's science and technology, so more and more companies are participating in the competition to develop analytical systems. In this paper, the technological trajectory of patents published between 1970 and 2018 were monitored by using the main path identification method based on the calculation of the search path link node (SPLC) value of each patent citation link, proposed by Von Wartburg et al. (Res Policy 34:1591-1607, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2005.08.001) and the technological development process was considered. As a result, the chromatographic technology development path consists of four stages: the key point of the 1st period is for the system development related to stable sample injection and mobile phase flow control; in the 2nd period, main development area is to further develop the stabilization system of the sample and the mobile phase developed in the 1st one and in the liquid chromatography, accomplish the fully automatic control of the system and increase the analytical accuracy and precision with combining computer; for the 3rd period is to increase the separation speed and separation efficiency in the chromatography column; in the last period, the main research objects are HPLC or UPLC, and the main area is to increase the stability, reliability and separation speed of the chromatographic system.