ABSTRACT
This chapter is not meant to be a review of the literature on the use of liquid crystals as stationary phases in gas chromatography (GC), rather it tells the story of the development of the subject from my prospective as I followed it over a period of 30 years. The history of this subject spans about 40 years. My personal knowledge and involvement started in 1970, and I was an active participant for a period of 20 years. In 1990 my research interest shifted from chromatography to capillary electrophoresis, but I kept myself up to date with the literature. The 1990s witnessed a surge in interest in this field on the part of Russian and Chinese researchers, concomitant with a slow-down in United States and western Europe. Unfortunately, many valuable contributions in the Russian and Chinese literature will not be covered in this review.
