[Luminescence and detection in liquid chromatography. I: Change of environment of analytes]

The emissions of light by biorganisms or these obtained by alchemists were known since long time ago but the are used in analytical chemistry only when STOKES discovered that the intensity of this light was proportional to the quantity of the matter. The very large sensibilities reached, associated with the great separation's ability of the liquid chromatography allows to develop new processes for quantification of very low concentrations of luminescent or no luminescent molecules. Many pharmaceutical, biological toxicological environmental or alimentary applications show that it is possible in liquid chromatography to obtain a detection limit about the pico or femtomole when simple chemical process are used: direct potentialization of luminescence by addition of modifiers of the chemical environment of the analytes: solvents, cyclodextrins, surfactants, metallic ions, indirect potentialization of the luminescence by transfer of energy from an excited molecule: sensitized fluorescence and phosphorescence, excitation of the molecule by a chemical reaction or chemiluminescence. These aspects are emphasized and illustrated by some examples in three articles.