Complex ionochromatographic determination of normalized components in water using conductometry and amperometry

Introduction. The most important task of monitoring environmental objects is the control of physiologically significant mineral components in drinking water. In ionochromatographic analysis of a mixture of anions in an aqueous sample, they can be divided into micro- and macro-components. Chromatographic determination of such toxicologically significant micro-components as nitrites, bromides, and iodides is difficult or impossible with large excesses of macro-components: chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates. Simultaneous sequential use of conductometry and amperometry makes it possible to effectively solve this complex analytical problem and obtain chromatographic results when analyzing a multicomponent sample in a single file.

Materials and methods. The studies were performed using the «Steyer» chromatographic system with ICSepAN2 (USA) and Aquilon A1 (RF) anion columns and amperometric and conductometric detection. Standard and exclusive capillary background suppression was used in the research. The objects of research were water samples (full-scale and model) with different concentration ratios for the anions to be determined.

Results. A new option of ionochromatographic method has been developed for the analytical control of anions in water samples with different concentrations of micro- and macro components. Consistent use of conductometry and amperometry combined with capillary exclusive background suppression has made it possible an effective detection of toxic anions such as nitrites, bromides, and iodides with presence of thousands of times the excess of chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates. At the same time, in a single file with two-channel recording of conductometric and amperometric signals, the possibility of obtaining a single chromatographic picture with a single aliquot input into the chromatographic system is shown.

Limitations. When significant amounts of nitrites and bromides (more than 5 mg/dm) are present in the samples at the same time, their chromatographic separation is difficult due to their similar retention times. However, the authors have not encountered such samples in their research on monitoring water bodies in the environment.

Conclusion. A new use case for ion chromatography (IC) is proposed as a method for monitoring the anionic composition of water, including sequential conductometric and amperometric detection as the eluent passes through the chromatographic system. The method makes it possible to determine the microconcentrations of toxic components (nitrites, bromides, iodides) against the background of a thousand fold excess of macro components. At the same time, two-channel fixation of chromatographic signals allows obtaining a complete chromatographic picture of both micro and macro components of the sample.

Compliance with ethical standards. the conclusion of the biomedical ethics committee or other documents (in Russian and English) is not required.

Contribution:
Abramov E.G. – collection and processing of material, statistical processing, text writing, research concept, editing;
Kiryakova N.A. – collection and processing of material, text correction;
Zhernov Yu.V. – editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: March 19, 2025 / Revised: July 22, 2025 / Accepted: November 3, 2025 / Published: December 19, 2025

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