Field-flow fractionation is a decades old technique with a lot of potential, though lack of knowledge and training keeps it from getting the attention it deserves. ‘You can couple FFF to all kinds of detectors, so the amount of information you can possibly gather is very rich.’

‘In 1965 I started off in a new direction: I developed the concept of a chromatographic-like system in which retention is established and controlled by an external field rather than by the stationary phase. This system, which we call field-flow fractionation (FFF) extends the range of chromatography upwards to include macromolecules and particles of almost every type and size, from 0.001 to 10 µm and beyond. […] I will add no more, for the story of FFF belongs more in the future than in the past.’

This is how J. Calvin Giddings, a Distinguished Professor of chemistry at the University of Utah, introduced his invention in the Journal of Chromatography Library in 1979. Though this technique is almost sixty years old, it remains underused. And researchers are missing out, says Alina Astefanei, assistant professor in analytical chemistry at the University of Amsterdam.