Rapid analysis of cyanuric acid in swim pool waters by high performance liquid chromatography using porous graphitic carbon

An approach is presented for reducing analysis times of cyanuric acid in swimming pool waters by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC method exploits the unique selectivity of porous graphitic carbon (PGC) to fully resolve cyanuric acid from other pool interferences within 10 min. By carefully timing the injections, multiple injections can be made before the end of the initial chromatographic run, more than doubling sample throughout. The method utilizes 95% of a 50 mM phosphate buffer solution (pH 9.1) and 5% methanol (v/v) with UV detection at 213 nm. This approach yielded run times rivaling those of the fastest methods using silica columns, and with the benefits of increased sensitivity.