A factorial design for optimizing a flow injection analysis system

The use of a factorial design for the response exploration of a flow inject ion (FI) system is described and illustrated by Fl spectrophotometric deter mination of paraquat. Variable response (absorbance) is explored as a funct ion of the factors flow rate and length of the reaction coil. The present s tudy was found to be useful to detect and estimate any interaction among th e factors that may affect the optimal conditions for the maximal response i n the optimization of the FI system, which is not possible with a univariat e design. Ln addition, this study showed that factorial experiments enable economy of experimentation and yield results of high precision due to the u se of the whole data for calculating the effects.