ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses specific, often commercially available, detectors for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) that use light as part of the detector itself. Photochemical derivatizations are a function of many variables and experimental approaches, including mobile-phase solvents; pH of the eluent; and salts and ion-pairing reagents present in the eluent. All these variables should be eventually considered whenever one wishes to utilize post-column photochemistry for HPLC derivatization purposes. Photochemistry-related derivatization reactions are ideally suited for flowing stream analyses over other post-column reaction techniques. Some post-column light-initiated reactions have also been used for electrochemical detection (EC) but now use mostly photolysis or photohydrolysis as the derivatization step. As with any post-column chemical derivatization approach, additives in the mobile phase, including solvents, must not enter into the overall equations, unless that is intentional on the part of the analyst involved. This would appear to be perhaps the first extensive review of this post-column derivatization approach in HPLC.
