ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The past century witnessed many advances in separation science in general and chromatography in particular. The use of visual detection was replaced by sensitive instrumental, spectroscopic, electrochemical, and other detectors. Automation, employing computers and autosamplers, allowed continuous analysis by most separation techniques. New support materials for liquid chromatography for the separation of all kinds of materials were developed. Capillary gas chromatography (GC) columns replaced packed columns. Capillary electrophoresis took over some of the applications of slab gel electrophoresis. Solid phase extraction replaced liquid/liquid extraction in many applications where sample cleaning is required prior to analysis.
