• • Organic polymer matrices, particularly PS-DVB and EVB-DVB, offer pH tolerance from 0 to 14, enabling the use of hydroxide eluents for suppressed IC, which is critical for analyzing weakly dissociated anions like bromate at trace levels (e.g., regulatory limits in drinking water).
• • Silica-based stationary phases are limited to pH 2–8, restricting their use with common IC eluents; this narrow pH range precludes their application in suppressed IC, which typically requires high-pH eluents, thus favoring polymer matrices for environmental anion analysis.
• • Functionalization strategies, such as grafting quaternary ammonium groups with hydrophilic spacers, have been shown to improve separation efficiency and selectivity; for instance, anion exchangers with dihydroxy-containing alkyl substitutes in quaternary ammonium groups exhibit enhanced hydrophilicity and chromatographic performance.
• • The review highlights the need for high-capacity anion exchangers to achieve low detection limits; for example, experimental design optimization of elution systems for high-capacity anion chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection has been applied to improve sensitivity for trace anions in complex matrices.