Green micro total analysis systems (GµTAS) for environmental samples

Abstract Micro total analysis systems (µTAS) which have received great interest in the recent years and successfully employed for fluid processing in microchannels at microliter levels are powerful alternatives to traditional macroscale analytical systems. Unique benefits arise in the scaling down of traditional macroscale systems, including significant decrease of reagent, sample and energy consumption, faster and cost-effective analytical processes and lowered analysis time. Furthermore, µTAS can be efficiently automated which leads to higher throughput and multiplexing. In this review paper, mainly green aspects of µTAS such as reducing of the volume of sample and solvents, using green solvents in µTAS, minimization of the generated waste and cost-effective processes for µTAS are discussed. The recent applications of green µTAS in the detection of various pollutants including heavy metals, pharmaceutical compounds, and dye compounds in environmental samples such as wastewaters, river waters are also demonstrated and highlighted.