Determination of catecholamines by ion chromatography coupled to acidic potassium permanganate chemiluminescence detection

A simple, fast, sensitive, highly selective and eco-friendly analytical method for the determination of catecholamines in human urine by ion chromatography (IC) with chemiluminescence (CL) detection was described in this paper. Using 12 mmol/L H2SO4 without any organic additive as eluent, three catecholamines including epinephrine (EP), norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) were well separated on a cation-exchange column. The CL detection was based on the reaction of analytes with acidic potassium permanganate in the presence of formaldehyde as an enhancer. The absence of methanol and acetonitrile in eluent made the proposed method more sensitive and eco-friendly. Under the optimal conditions, the linear range of the proposed method was in the range of 0.02–0.5 μg/mL. The limit of detection (LOD) was in the range of 0.6 and 5.1 μg/L. The relative standard deviations (RSD) for 0.1 μg/mL mixed standard solution were in the range of 0.8–1.9% (n = 11). The method has been applied to the determination of catecholamines in human urine successfully. Excellent spiked recoveries were achieved for catecholamines ranged from 91.2% to 112.7%.