Integration of chemical and biochemical analysis systems into a glass microchip.

This review focuses on the integration of chemical and biochemical analysis systems into glass microchips for general use. By combining multiphase laminar flow driven by pressure and micro unit operations, such as mixing, reaction, extraction and separation, continuous-flow chemical processing systems can be realized in the microchip format, while the application of electrophoresis-based chip technology is limited. The performances of several analysis systems were greatly improved by microchip integration because of some characteristics of microspace, i.e., a large specific interface area, a short molecular diffusion time, a small heat capacity and so on. By applying these concepts, several different analysis systems, i.e., wet analysis of cobalt ion, multi-ion sensor, immunoassay, and cellular analysis, were successfully integrated on a microchip. These microchip technologies are promising for meeting the future demands of high-throughput chemical processing.