Testing the Performance of an Ion Chromatography Column

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Testing the Performance of an Ion Chromatography Column

Kristin Quinn

March 10, 2005

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Kristin Quinn

Instrumental Analysis Lab

10 March 2005

Ion Chromatography

Introduction

        Ion column chromatography is used to separate both cations and anions. The separation of ions is performed by using an ion exchange resin (this lab uses an anion exchange resin which is a high molecular weight polymer).         The amount of time required for certain ions to move through the column depends on the affinities of the ions. The mobile phase’s anions, sodium bicarbonate in this lab, will force the ion that’s being tested out of the column.                          

Procedure

  1. Given the choice of six 1000 ppm sodium salts, choose three. The solutions to choose from are: sodium fluoride, sodium chloride, sodium bromide, sodium sulfate, sodium phosphate, and sodium nitrate.
  2. Prepare three 25 mL solutions each with one of the chosen sodium salts, diluting with the carbonate buffer.
  3. Run an IC on each one.
  4. For day two, come up with an experiment that evaluates the column’s performance. Look in textbooks to see what parameters can be tested.
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        The three anions we tested on day one were: fluoride, chloride, and bromide. It took several tries to get some of the spectra to show up correctly. On day two, our lab

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consisted of making two solutions. Each lab had varying concentrations of each of the three anions tested during the first day. The first solution consisted of: 1 ppm chloride, 2 ppm fluoride, and 5 ppm bromide. The second solution was: ½ ppm chloride, 4 ppm fluoride, and 10 ppm bromide.

Results

        The first solution ran was the bicarbonate buffer. This buffer showed peaks as ...

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