Solid-phase spectroscopy from the point of view of green analytical chemistry

In the 1990s, the concept of green chemistry (GC) emerged with the aim of minimizing the environmental impact of activity in chemistry. Nowadays, green analytical chemistry (GAC) receives increasing attention as an important trend in analytical chemistry and an emerging area of GC in the laboratory. Analytical methods based on spectroscopy are amongst those that dominate GAC. In this article, we discuss the contribution of solid-phase spectroscopy (SPS) to the development of GAC methodologies, from its first conception (batch mode) to developments based on implementing SPS with flow-analysis methodologies. Using the GAC concept, we present and comment upon relevant examples of strategies and types of configuration, in order to give readers insight into the features and the potential of SPS in the emerging field of GAC. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.