Fast separation of UV absorbing anions using ion-interaction chromatography

Ion-interaction chromatography on a short (30X4.6 mm) 3 mum ODS column has been investigated with the aim of developing fast chromatographic separations of selected inorganic anions. Tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBA-CI) was used as the ion-interaction reagent in mobile phases that also contained up to 20% methanol. Separations of simple test mixtures of up to eight UV absorbing anions illustrated how excellent efficiencies (>50 000 plates/m) could be obtained under optimized conditions. The use of an optimised mobile phase containing 20 mM TBA-CI and 20% methanol resulted in the baseline separation of five important anions (iodate, bromate, nitrite, bromide and nitrate) in a separation window of just 28 s, with a shortest total analysis time of 50 s. The method was briefly applied to the rapid analysis of nitrite and nitrate in both a drinking water and a river water sample with a view to future on-line monitoring. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.