With the introduction of the eluent generator technology, the weighing task in the morning was eliminated and hydroxide eluent could be prepared in an automated and expedient fashion with a flow of deionized water. The deionized water stream however needed to be free of ionic impurities and carbon dioxide intrusion continued to be a problem. A trap or smear column was still recommended and had to be regenerated frequently for achieving good baseline performance with a gradient mode of operation.
If electrolysis can be used to regenerate suppressors and used for eluent generation, the question at hand was, “Can this technology be used for regenerating a trap column?” Can this approach also remove contaminant ions and preserve chromatographic performance and operate on a continuous basis without any additional reagents or any downtime? Will customers benefit from such a device? Indeed, these questions were addressed with the development of the continuously regenerated trap column. Now with the combination of CR-TC with eluent generation technology, high purity eluents were produced that provided excellent performance of the IC. The device operated without generating any additional wastes and used the suppressor effluent for the water required for the electrolysis reactions. These developments lead to the Reagent Free Ion Chromatograph system comprising of the eluent generator, the CRTC and the electrolytic suppressor and operation of the ion chromatograph was established on a facile basis with a stream of deionized water.
Daily tasks in the lab such as weighing, eluent processing, and regeneration steps were eliminated and state-of-the-art performance with the RFIC system was established. It is clear today that RFIC systems are the workhorse in most laboratories and early customer challenges fueled these innovations!