Premium
Gravity‐flow open tubular cation chromatography
Author(s) -
Kubáň Petr,
Pelcová Pavlína,
Kubáň Vlastimil,
Klakurková Lenka,
Dasgupta Purnendu K.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of separation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.72
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1615-9314
pISSN - 1615-9306
DOI - 10.1002/jssc.200800305
Subject(s) - column chromatography , thermal conductivity detector , chemistry , alkali metal , chromatography , analytical chemistry (journal) , ion chromatography , conductivity , polymerization , tartaric acid , capacitance , electrode , gas chromatography , polymer , organic chemistry , citric acid
We describe ion chromatography (IC) on open tubular cation exchange columns with a controllable capacity multilayered stationary phase architecture. The columns of relatively large bore (75 μm id) are fabricated by coating fused‐silica capillaries with multiple layers of poly(butadiene‐maleic acid) (PBMA) copolymer and crosslinking the deposited layers by thermally initiated radical polymerisation. Column capacity increases in a predictable manner with increase in the number of successively coated layers. Gravity flow with a modest head (< 2 m) can provide the desired separations within a reasonable period. We provide a minimalist configuration where no suppression is used, the sample is injected hydrodynamically as in CE, and detection is accomplished by an inexpensive homebuilt contactless conductivity detector or a capacitance to voltage digital converter. A 1 m long 75 μm bore column coated with two layers of PBMA allows gravity‐flow open tubular IC to separate four alkali cations in < 10 min with a 1 mM tartaric acid (TA) eluent. Simultaneous separation of alkali and alkaline earth metal cations can be accomplished in less than 25 min using 1.75 mM pyridinedicarboxylic acid as an eluent. Contactless conductometric detection (C 4 D) allows LODs down to 150 nmol/L, corresponding to 30 fmol injections. Analysis of real water samples is demonstrated.