Applications of microfluidic systems in environmental analysis

During the past few decades, rapid growth in the applications of microfluidic systems to environmental analysis or environmentally related species has been observed. This review presents and critically discusses the published literature on the applications of microfluidic systems to real environmental samples or samples simulating environmental conditions. The subjects covered include integrated pretreatments, separation modes, detection methods and monitoring sensors used in these platforms. The main challenges in this field and the author’s perspectives on future directions for environmental analysis based on microfluidic systems are also proposed.