ABSTRACT
Unlike the development of chromatographic techniques for the determination of organic species, the progress of modern inorganic liquid chromatography has been very dependent on the application of post-column reaction (PCR) systems, and PCR detection still remains the dominant detection technique for inorganic species in general. This is changing slightly as new chromatographic techniques are developed that permit the direct detection of eluted species, but it is certain that PCR systems will continue to play an important role in the development of inorganic liquid chromatography. The rising interest in inorganic PCR systems is illustrated by the data, which shows that there has been a rapid growth in the number of publications in this area. Although the first application of a PCR for the detection of inorganic species eluted from a chromatographic column took place in 1961, there have been only a few studies published on the effect of different design factors on the performance of PCR for inorganic species.
