Abstract
Fundamental characteristics of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and analytical supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) are described. SFC is a powerful technique for separating non-volatile and thermally labile compounds which can not be separated by gas chromatography. In addition, SFC has advantages of higher chromatographic efficiencies and detection versatility compared to liquid chromatography. SFE has many advantages over conventional liquid extraction, such as the potential of rapid and selective extraction. One unique feature of SFE is that it can be easily interfaced to chromatographic techniques.
