It was while I was at the DuPont Experiment Station as an analytical chemist in the biochemicals department that I was first exposed to ion chromatography (IC). I read the first article in Analytical Chemistry with great enthusiasm and told my management how useful the technology could be in a number of different challenging areas. Their response was, “Go build one!” I ignored that remark and went to a seminar by Dionex. Having seen a system in operation, I went back to my managers with a letter of justification that included 10 specific problem areas. In 1976, I was allowed to buy my first ion chromatograph (the first ever commercial instrument was sold in October 1975, so I was a real early adopter). I started working on my new IC system and within a week I’d solved all 10 application problems. Within another few days, I’d solved another challenge in the business and they wanted my IC system for that project, so I had to buy another. So in just a month or two, we had purchased two ICs at DuPont and I had become the unwitting IC guru. I was asked to present IC technology to other operating departments and to see how applicable it was to solving their problems, so I developed a training seminar and wrote courses on methods development.
Cheers to IC!
Art Fitchett recounts his early days in ion chromatography and highlights how a string of innovations have made it a beverage analysis workhorse.
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