Trace analysis of bromate in drinking waters by means of on-line coupling IC-ICP-MS

The on-line-coupling of ion chromatography (IC) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a powerful tool for the determination of bromate in drinking waters. The use of a high-capacity and high-performance anion-exchanger combined with an NH₄NO₃-based elution system allows the determination of bromate in almost every water sample without any sample pretreatment. The method detection limits in the water samples investigated are 50 to 65 ng/L or 44 to 58 pg bromate, respectively. Considering sensivity as well as imprecision (5% at 500 ng/L bromate) and short analysis times (8 to 15 min per sample including sample uptake), the described IC-ICP-MS coupling is well suited for precise routine analyses of bromate in drinking waters at the sub μg/L level.