Chemiluminescent nitrogen detection for HPLC is an important new high throughput technique for measuring yields and purities in synthetic organic chemistry. This destructive detector measures the total nitrogen content of a chromatographic peak, can be calibrated with any nitrogen containing compound, and thus allows quantitative analysis when authentic reference standards are not available. The application to solid phase synthesis is illustrated with a diketopiperazine synthesis. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.