Ion chromatographic separation of inorganic ions using a combination of hydrophilic interaction chromatographic column and cation-exchange resin column.
A combination of hydrophilic interaction chromatographic (HILIC) column and a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin (WCX) column was used for simultaneous separation of inorganic anions and cations by ion chromatography (IC). Firstly, the capability of HILIC column for the separation of analyte ions was evaluated under acidic eluent conditions. The columns used were SeQuant ZIC-HILIC (ZIC-HILIC) with a sulfobetaine-zwitterion stationary phase (ZIC-HILIC) and Acclaim HILIC-10 with a diol stationary phase (HILIC-10). When using tartaric acid as the eluent, the HILIC columns indicated strong retentions for anions, based on ion-pair interaction. Especially, HILIC-10 could strongly retain anions compared with ZIC-HILIC. The selectivity for analyte anions of HILIC-10 with 5 mmol/L tartaric acid eluent was in the order of I(-) > NO3(-) > Br(-) > Cl(-) > H2PO4(-). However, since HILIC-10 could not separate analyte cations, a WCX column (TSKgel Super IC-A/C) was connected after the HILIC column in series. The combination column system of HILIC and WCX columns could successfully separate ten ions (Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, H2PO4(-), Cl(-), Br(-), NO3(-) and I(-)) with elution of 4 mmol/L tartaric acid plus 8 mmol/L 18-crown-6. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of analyte ions by the system were in the ranges of 0.02% - 0.05% in retention times and 0.18% - 5.3% in peak areas through three-time successive injections. The limits of detection at signal-to-noise ratio of 3 were 0.24 - 0.30 micromol/L for the cations and 0.31 - 1.2 micromol/L for the anions. This system was applied for the simultaneous determination of the cations and the anions in a vegetable juice sample with satisfactory results.
Graduate School of Engineering, Gunma University, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan.
Kaori
K
Arai
Masanobu
M
Mori
Takahiro
T
Hironaga
Hideyuki
H
Itabashi
Kazuhiko
K
Tanaka