Detection by ozone-induced chemiluminescence in chromatography

Gas phase ozone-induced chemiluminescence is reviewed in this work with the emphasis on its applications in analytical chemistry and in chromatography in particular. Background information on various types of ozone-induced chemiluminescent reactions is presented and the reaction mechanisms are discussed. These reactions are of great importance to academic researchers as well as application chemists, due to their unique properties. Although there are many direct ozone chemiluminescent reactions with various gaseous molecules, the incorporation of a conversion step to convert various non-chemiluminescent analytes to a species capable of reacting with ozone to produce chemiluminescence broadens the horizon of this technique tremendously. The conversion of nearly all nitrogen- and sulfur-containing compounds to their respective chemiluminescent species for universal nitrogen and sulfur detection has made nitrogen/sulfur chemiluminescence detection the most widely used analytical methods based upon ozone-induced chemiluminescence. In addition to non-chromatographic applications, nitrogen/sulfur chemiluminescence detection has been adapted to various chromatographic techniques from gas chromatography to liquid and supercritical fluid chromatography as specialized element-specific detectors. The characteristics of these detectors are evaluated and compared to other element-selective detection techniques. The unique features of the chemiluminescence detectors have made them powerful tools in many diverse fields of analytical chemistry. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.