A New Efficient Analytical Method for Picolinate Ion Measurements in Complex Aqueous Solutions

This study focuses on the development of a new simple but sensitive, fast and quantitative liquid chromatography method for picolinate ion measurement in high ionic strength aqueous solutions. It involves cation separation over a chromatographic CS16 column using methane sulfonic acid as a mobile phase and detection by UV absorbance (254 nm). The CS16 column is a high-capacity stationary phase exhibiting both cation exchange and RP properties. It allows interaction with picolinate ions which are in their zwitterionic form at the pH of the mobile phase (1.3–1.7). Analysis is performed in 30 min with a detection limit of about 0.05 μM and a quantification limit of about 0.15 μM. Moreover, this analytical technique has been tested efficiently on complex aqueous samples from an effluent treatment facility.