Introduction to advanced separation.

Separation is an essential aspect in analytical chemistry or chemical measurement science. With the capability to separate components within a sample into individual bands or zones distributed spatially or/and temporally, separation makes the analysis or measurement more accurate through separating different components into individual fractions and reducing or even eliminating the interference from sample matrix species. Such a power also makes separation an important tool to purify components of interest from mixtures or natural products for further investigations. Meanwhile, separation can make a subsequent analytical method more sensitive through enriching or concentrating the components of interest in the samples to be tested. Modern separation science and techniques have been well established and are quite mature, making them widely employed in routine scientific research and practices. However, due to the increasing complexity and challenge of analytical tasks that we are facing, advanced separation science and techniques are still in high demand. This inspired us to organize this themed collection to reflect some trends and features of this practically useful, technically diverse and forever progressive area.