Rapid simultaneous analysis of oxyhalides and inorganic anions in aqueous media by ion exchange chromatography with indirect UV detection

Simultaneous analyses of oxyhalides (BrO3-,ClO3-) and inorganic anions (Cl-,Br-,NO3-andSO42-) have been achieved on metrosep anion dual1 Metrohm as polymer column (150 × 3 mm D.I.) with ortho-phtalic acid as a visualization agent and as ion developer constituent of the mobile phase. The separations have occured without interferences and any base line perturbation.Best separations have also occured between (Cl-/ClO3-) and (Br-/BrO3-) with good a resolution. Detections limits (S/N = 3) of BrO3-,ClO3-andNO3- were 2 and 5 ppm for inorganic anions Cl−, Br− and SO42-. The method had a good linearity (r2 > 0.995) and high precision (relative standard deviation) <4%. The main reason for the detector choice was that UV detectors are widespread in educational and low level equipment laboratories. Indirect photometric detection is an attractive and inexpensive approach and the system is versatile.