ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most important practical applications of microcolumn liquid chromatography are those in which the advantages are demonstrated by theory. These are mainly applications that make use of the possibility of working with substantially lower amounts of analyte sample than used for conventional analytic columns and those that use a higher analyte concentration at the microcolumn outlet. The advantage of working with a low sample amount while maintaining the detection limit is evident in trace analysis especially if higher sample amounts can be obtained only with difficulty, sometimes with unacceptable risk, or if the analyzed object does not provide sufficiently high sample volumes. Microcolumns are convenient for separation and determination of trace concentrations of inorganic ions. Three basic chromatographic systems are used for separation of metal cations: separation of cations on a solid cation resin, separation of complexes of the corresponding cations on reversed-phase columns, and separation on solid sorbents prepared by chemical bonding of a complexing agent.
