Optimization strategies in ion chromatography

The ion chromatographer is often concerned with the separation of complex mixtures with a variable behavior of their components, which makes good resolution and reasonable analysis time sometimes extremely difficult. Several optimization strategies have been proposed to solve this problem. The most reliable and less time consuming strategies apply resolution criteria based on theoretical or empirical retention models to describe the retention of particular components. This review focuses on optimization strategies in ion chromatography with a detailed description of the ion chromatographic retention model, objective functions, multi criteria decision making, and peak modeling.