Transport phenomena in flow injection analysis without chemical reaction

Dispersion phenomena play a very important role in flow injection analysis. In this paper, physical transport phenomena in flow injection methods are discussed. Three different types of reactor — a straight tube, a helically coiled tube and a new single bead string reactor — are compared. Under similar flow conditions, the dispersion in the single bead string reactor is the lowest. The specific advantages of single bead string reactors are their very simple preparation and maintenance and the good reproducibility of the peaks. It is shown that in open capillary tubes (coiled or not) the Taylor dispersion equation is of very limited use, because the residence times are too short, and because secondary flow occurs in the case of coiled tubes.