Reversed phase HPLC determination of titanium(IV) and iron(III) with sodium 1,2-dihydroxybenzene-3,5-disulfonic acid

A highly sensitive method has been developed for the determination of titanium(IV) and iron(III) by ion-pair reversed phase liquid chromatography using sodium 1,2-dihydroxybenzene-3,5-disulfonic acid (Tiron) as a precolumn chelating reagent. The metal - Tiron chelates were separated on a C₁₈ (ODS) column; the mobile phase was a 2:8 (v/v) mixture of acetonitrile and acetate buffer (0.04 mol/L, pH 6.2) containing 2.0 × 10^?3 mol/L Tiron, 0.04 mol/L tetrabutylammonium bromide, and 0.1 mol/L potassium nitrate. The detection limits for titanium(IV) and iron(III) are 0.5 and 2.0 μg/L, respectively. The method has been applied to the simultaneous determination of titanium(IV) and iron(III) in river water samples and has furnished highly precise results.