Advances in the determination of inorganic ions in potable waters by ion chromatography

Abstract

Ion chromatography (IC) is now a well-established methodology for the analysis of ionic species. The technique is applicable to the determination of a wide range of solutes in many sample types, although the determination of inorganic ions in potable waters continues to be the most widely used application of ion chromatography. Many standardization and regulatory bodies, such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have approved methods of analysis based upon IC, most of which have been published within the last decade. Recent developments in the field of IC, such as the use of higher capacity columns, larger loop injections, more complex sample preparation and detection schemes, have been incorporated into these new approved methods. These advances allow the determination of environmentally significant contaminants, such as common inorganic anions, bromate, perchlorate and chromate, at trace levels in potable waters using ion chromatography.

Identification of inorganic ions in post‐blast explosive residues using portable CE instrumentation and capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection

“…Inorganic ions are highly prevalent and measurement of their levels is important in a wide variety of sample matrices, including environmental [1][2][3][4][5], foods [6], industrial [7,8] and forensic samples [9][10][11]. Determination of these species can be performed by wet chemical methods [12], gravimetry [13], potentiometry [14], flow-injection analysis [15], atomic spectroscopy [16,17], ion chromatography [2] and electrophoretic methods in capillary [5,18,19] and microchip [20] formats.…”

“…Determination of these species can be performed by wet chemical methods [12], gravimetry [13], potentiometry [14], flow-injection analysis [15], atomic spectroscopy [16,17], ion chromatography [2] and electrophoretic methods in capillary [5,18,19] and microchip [20] formats. Of increasing interest is the use of portable and field-deployable instrumentation for these analyses so that the distance between sample collection and analysis can be minimised.…”

New suppressor technology improves the ion chromatographic determination of inorganic anions and disinfection by-products in drinking water

“…The increased sensitivity as a result of the CO 2 removal from the detector effluent lowers the overall MDLs in comparison to the published MDLs in the EPA method [5]. Our MDL values are based on 200 l sample injections.…”

“…The EPA methods 300.0 and 300.1 use a sodium carbonate mobile phase, a column that separates the seven common anions and oxyhalides, a suppressor, and a conductivity detector. Several methods have been published to improve the limits of detection for the inorganic anions and the DBPs [5][6][7]. Advances in column resins, instrumentation, and even various modes of detection have improved the analysis of ions at trace levels.…”

Anion exchange selectivity: Study of sorbents with various matrices for separation of chlorine oxoanions and chloroacetic acids

“…The diffi culties encountered in determining low concentrations of toxic products formed in disinfection of drinking water, chlorine oxoanions (ClO -, ClO 2 -, ClO 3 -, ClO 4 -)) and chloroacetic acids, in the presence of matrix (Cl -, SO 4 2-, HCO 3 -) and impurity (F -, Br -, NO 3 -, HPO 4 2-) ions by ion chromatography are due to the small difference between the sorption properties of analytes and other components with close hydrophobic or hydrophilic properties [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Therefore, samples are prepared in various ways, gradient elution is employed, and specifi c columns are used for each group of compounds: chlorite and chlorate [23][24][25], perchlorate [26][27][28][29][30][31], and chloroacetic acids [32][33][34][35][36].…”