ИСТИНА

The absolute majority of ion-exchangers in ion-chromatography (IC) are organopolymer based. As result of it all of these ion-exchangers possess unavoidable hydrophobic properties that can affect the chromatographic performance. The most intriguing effects of hydrophobic interactions are usually expected for the separation of inorganic, small organic ions and polar molecules. The occurrence of these two retention mechanism in IC can be characterised as symbiotic relationship. To understand this relationship a systematic characterisation of ion-exchangers was accomplished with a special attention on evaluation of their hydrophobicity and its effect on separation of ions. Clearly, the symbiotic relationship in IC requires a great deal of balance between hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions in terms of possible commensalism, mutualism and parasitism.