Blue applicability grade index (BAGI) and software: a new tool for the evaluation of method practicality

Abstract

In this work, blue applicability grade index (BAGI) is proposed as a new metric tool for evaluating the practicality of an analytical method. BAGI can be considered complementary to the well-established green metrics, and it is mainly focused on the practical aspects of White Analytical Chemistry. This tool evaluates ten main attributes including the type of analysis, the number of analytes that are simultaneously determined, the number of samples that can be analyzed per hour, the type of reagents and materials used in the analytical method, the required instrumentation, the number of samples that can be simultaneously treated, the requirement for preconcentration, the automation degree, the type of sample preparation, and the amount of sample. Through the evaluation of these attributes, an asteroid pictogram is generated, together with the respective score. To facilitate the use of the metric a simple, open-source application was created (mostwiedzy.pl/bagi). It is accompanied by a web application available at bagi-index.anvil.app. The functionality of the tool was demonstrated by evaluating the applicability of five different analytical methods as case studies. All things considered, BAGI can be easily used to identify the weak and strong points of a method in terms of practicality and applicability, as well as to compare the performance of different analytical methods. We believe that BAGI metric tool will gain not only attention but also trust and acceptance from the chemical community.