High-speed simultaneous ion-exclusion/cation-exchange chromatography of anions and cations on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin column

The simultaneous ion-exclusion/cation-exchange separation column packed with a polymethacrylate-based weakly acidic cation-exchange resin of 3 microm particle size was used to achieve the simultaneous high-speed separation of anions and cations (Cl(-), NO3(-), SO4(2-), Na(+), K(+), NH4(+), Ca(2+) and Mg(2+)) commonly found in environmental samples. The high-speed simultaneous separation is based on a combination of the ion-exclusion mechanism for the anions and the cation-exchange mechanism for cations. The complete separation of the anions and cations was achieved in 5 min by elution with 15 mM tartaric acid-2.5 mM 18-crown-6 at a flow-rate of 1.5 ml/min. Detection limits at S/N=3 ranged from 0.36 to 0.68 microM for anions and 0.63-0.99 microM for cations. This method has been applied to the simultaneous determination of anions and cations in several environmental waters with satisfactory results.