IC: An eye on the future

Ion chromatography (IC) has been available commercially for more than 25 years and can therefore be considered a mature analytical technique. But, if this description conjures up an image of a technique whose development has slowed to an incremental level, nothing could be further from the truth. The pace of technological change in IC has accelerated dramatically over the past five years, and there are further developments on the horizon to whet the appetite of even the most demanding user. Before looking at these developments, we should first cover the basics of IC. IC is a high-performance ion-exchange technique for the separation and quantification of low-molecular-weight ions (1‚Äö-4). Typically, IC is used for the determination of inorganic anions and cations, and it is the premier method used for anions in modern analytical chemistry. IC therefore finds widespread use in fields as diverse as environmental, clinical, and industrial analysis.