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In this review paper, miniaturized techniques, including both electromigration and liquid
chromatographic ones, have been considered discussing their main features in the analytical field
for the separation and analysis of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In capillary
electrophoresis (CE) and nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC), separation are performed in
capillaries with internal diameter (I.D.) lower than 100 m and therefore flow rates in the range 100-
1000 nL/min are applied. Therefore due to the low flow rate, high mass sensitivity can be obtained.
Usually conventional UV detectors are used on-line; however these techniques can be coupled with
mass spectrometry (MS). CE and nano-LC have been also applied to the separation of NSAIDs
using silica stationary phases (SP) modified with C18 promoting interaction with analytes mainly
based on hydrophobic interaction. In addition the use of chiral SP resulted effective for the chiral
resolution of these compounds. In addition to silica phases, monolithic (both organic and inorganic)
material has also been used. Although most of the presented studies aimed to demonstrate the
usefulness of the considered microfluidic techniques, some applications to real samples have also
been reported.
