Focal Point: Analytical Chemistry: Organic Trace Analysis – Challenges – Unsolved Problems

Abstract

The session 'Organic Trace Analysis – Challenges – Unsolved Problems' tried to give a 'state-of-the-art' view of some of the fundamental problems in organic trace analysis:• How to resolve very complex mixtures into single compounds and to deal with the resulting flood of information.• How to improve resolution of a demanding separation and to speed up analysis time.• How to extract efficiently volatile polar compounds from water; a hardly solvable problem.In the following, leading experts in these fields give a synopsis progress report and outlook about some pieces of the complex puzzle of possible solutions, namely the role and status of separation columns in high performance liquid chromatography, the possibilities and limitations of electrochromatography, the on-line combination of sample preconcentration/clean-up with separation techniques, the modular on-line coupling of two GC columns and the enrichment of polar compounds in water by a LiCl-precolumn and high-resolution gas chromatography.