ABSTRACT
Ion chromatography (IC), introduced by Small and coworkers [1], basically represents a continuous ion-exchange process where a water-based solution, “eluent” or “mobile phase,” is uxed through a column lled with an ion-exchange solid material, “stationary phase,” that is characterized by the presence of xed ionic sites within counterions on the surface, and eluted as “eluate” to the detector. Analytes are separated on the basis of their different relative afnities for the ionic sites of the stationary phase and the separation mechanism(s), hereafter detailed, is mainly an ion exchange occurring between the counterion on the stationary phase and ions (analytes or not) in the eluent. The most traditional and universal detector applied in ion chromatography (IC) was the conductometric detector. In respect to this kind of detector, two operating modes are dened, named nonsuppressed and suppressed ion chromatography. In the latter mode, a device “suppressor,” located before the detector, enables the reduction or total removal of the contribute to the conducibility of the eluate due to the composition of the eluent, increasing the detection sensitivity. Spectrophotometric, amperometric, and spectrometric detection modes are also usually coupled to IC separations.
