title: Ion chromatographic determination of acidity.
abstract: The practice of determining acid concentrations by titrations has remained unchanged for more than a century. We introduce a new approach to the determination of acid concentrations based on cation exchange chromatography. We demonstrate the ability of sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene based stationary phases to separate the hydrogen ion from other monovalent cations. The eluent is a dilute solution of a neutral salt, sometimes containing a small concentration of the corresponding acid, e.g., sodium ethanesulfonate, pH adjusted with ethanesulfonic acid. The high equivalent conductance (approximately 350 S.cm2/equiv) of H+ and relatively low eluent concentration allows sensitive conductometric detection of H+, down to the 50 microM level under favorable conditions. The conductometric response to H+ can be linear over a wide range of H+ concentrations, from sub-millimolar to several molar concentrations. The system allows the rapid quantitation of strong acids; weak acids can also be determined depending on pKa and injected concentration. The determinations of several strong and weak acids are presented along with factors that govern their chromatographic analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock 79409-1061, USA.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: De Borba
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Kinchin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pohl
mesh_terms: D002264:Carboxylic Acids / Q000032:analysis; D002414:Cations, Monovalent / Q000032:analysis; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange / Q000379:methods*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D002264:Carboxylic Acids; D002414:Cations, Monovalent; D011522:Protons