A novel ion chromatography cycling-column-switching system for the determination of low-level chlorate and nitrite in high salt matrices.

A novel ion chromatography cycling-column-switching system was developed for the determination of chlorate and nitrite in high salt matrices. The simple system included a pump, two valves, a single eluent, and a conductivity detector. Both online pre-concentration and matrix elimination were achieved by this method. The target anions were eluted from the concentrator column to the analytical columns circularly. Chloride matrix was then eliminated completely. The method was applied to the determination of low-level chlorate and nitrite in the chloride matrix. Our experimental results demonstrated that this system is of advantages such as high sensitivity, facile automation and simple sample pretreatment, which might be a promising approach for environmental researches and food control.