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Abstract
Inorganic ionic pollutants are of great environmental concern due to their health related impact. Around 16 inorganic contaminants are to be monitored regarding the primary drinking water regulation set by US, EPA. The permissible limits or guideline values are generally in the range of submicro gram or even less. Moreover, the analytes of concern are present at tracer concentration in the bulk matrices. Of particular concern are non-metallic ions that are difficult to monitor accurately and precisely in the presence of bulk unwanted ions. HPLC has played an important role in analyzing ionic pollutants, in particular, speciation of elements. In this review, some fundamentals of high performance liquid chromatography and, in particular, ion chromatography and ion pair chromatography have been described in some detail. The use of ion chromatography in combination with different types of mass spectrometric techniques has also been outlined. The LC-MS detection limits range from submicrogram to picogram and most of these techniques met the primary drinking water regulation requirement.