The main chromatographic techniques used in water analysis

2 The main chromatographic techniques used in innumerable variations in water analysis are 

Column chromatography with various column packings Liquid chromatography (LC) 

Gas chromatography with packed columns and capillary columns, and various stationary and mobile phases and different detectors (see the Section on gas chromatography (2.12) in this chapter) 

Even if the instrumental techniques gain ever more ground, some of them in automated form, evaluated and documented by computer, the simple, manual methods such as paper and thin-layer chromatography still have their role to play. One need only think of the separation of the various forms of phosphate such as orthophosphate, pyrophosphate, metaphosphate, polymeric phosphates and condensed phosphates, or the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (specifically with thin-layer chromatography) in water analysis. 

Ion chromatography is used to detect not only inorganic anions and cations but also organic group parameters in water samples. 

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