Ion Chromatographic Analysis of Sulfate and Nitrate in Ambient Aerosols

Ion exchange has been known to provide excellent separation of ions since 1850, and ion exchange chromatography has been in use since 1940. However, ion exchange chromatography has not been widely used for the automated analysis of eluted ions because of the background produced by the electrolyte used for elution. H. Small, T. S. Stevens, and W. C. Bauman, (Anal. Chem., 47, 1801 (1975)) recently developed a technique whereby the background is reduced to a minimum with eluant suppression. Eluant suppression allows the use of ion exchange chromatography with conductimetric detection as a sensitive and selective means for the analysis of practically all ionic species. This communication describes the first successful application of ion chromatography (IC) to the analysis of total water soluble sulfate and nitrate in ambient aerosols. Analytical conditions and data on sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy and repeatability are described. The application of this technique to the analysis of atniospheric anions and cations and their precursors is to be investigated in future studies.