A factorial design for optimizing a flow injection analysis system

The use of a factorial design for the response exploration of a flow injection (FI) system is described and illustrated by FI spectrophotometric determination of paraquat. Variable response (absorbance) is explored as a function of the factors flow rate and length of the reaction coil. The present study was found to be useful to detect and estimate any interaction among the factors that may affect the optimal conditions for the maximal response in the optimization of the FI system, which is not possible with a univariate design. In addition, this study showed that factorial experiments enable economy of experimentation and yield results of high precision due to the use of the whole data for calculating the effects.