Emerging techniques with future potential

There are a number of research areas with potential to produce tools for assessing the effects of chemicals on organisms and populations inhabiting contaminated soils. These are  

These areas are all fast developing and already have produced a number of new techniques that could have future uses in risk assessment and monitoring. In many cases the techniques are still in development, although a few already have demonstrated clear potential. 

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The emerging of CEC and the increased scientific work on the preparation of different phases, characterization, and applications of the CEC columns have given much credence to their future potentials in microseparations. The fabrication and availability of different phases for analysis with both particle-packed and monolithic columns give the technique a great future. This is because a variety of mechanisms can be exploited in the analysis and separation of compounds that could otherwise be difficult to analyze with HPLC or CE alone. The ease of coupling CEC to sensitive detectors such as mass spectrometers for enhanced sensitivity, structural elucidation, and characterization bestows the technique with great versatility. 

It should be noted that EXAFS and ASAXS are relatively new techniques, however, having emerged only within the last fifteen years. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that their full potential is largely unexplored. Moreover, it is certain that with current and future synchrotron sources[47], new techniques will be developed, and that some of these will be profitably applied to the study of ionomers. 

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