Recent Developments in Green Chromatography

In recent decades, green analytical chemistry has received more attention due to the growing concern over environmental conservation and the use of non-renewable resources. Among the analytical techniques, liquid chromatography is the most widely used in quality control analysis of food, drugs, and clinical analysis among others, but it is also the technique that uses the largest amount of hazardous organic solvents and generates large volumes of waste. Therefore, strategies such as the miniaturization of chromatographic systems, the use of online sample preparation systems, and the replacement of hazardous organic solvents by green solvents have been applied to develop greener chromatographic methods. In this paper, strategies for greening methods and recent developments in green chromatography are presented. In addition, metrics for the proper evaluation of these methods are discussed.