Ion chromatographic separation of inorganic ions using a combination of hydrophilic interaction chromatographic column and cation-exchange resin column

摘要

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 sulfobetainezwitterion 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 μmol/L for the cations and 0.31 - 1.2 μmol/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.