Simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of phosphate and silicate ions in river water by using ion-exclusion chromatographic separation and post-column derivatization

Nakatani Nobutake

Kozaki Daisuke

Masuda Wakako

Nakagoshi Nobukazu

Hasebe Kiyoshi

Mori Masanobu

Tanaka Kazuhiko

Analytica Chimica Acta

The simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of phosphate and silicate ions in river water was examined by using ion-exclusion chromatography and post-column derivatization. Phosphate and silicate ions were separated by the ion-exclusion column packed with a polymethacrylate-based weakly acidic cation-exchange resin in the H+-form (TSKgel Super IC-A/C) by using ultra pure water as an eluent. After the postcolumn derivatization with molybdate and ascorbic acid, so-called molybdenum-blue, both ions were determined simultaneously by spectrophotometry. The effects of sulfuric acid, sodium molybdate and ascorbic acid concentrations and reaction coil length, which have relation to form the reduced complexes of molybdate and ions, on the detector response for phosphate and silicate ions were investigated. Under the optimized conditions (color-forming reactant, 50 mM sulfuric acid-10 mM sodium molybdate; reducing agent, 50 mM ascorbic acid; reaction coil length, 6 m), the calibration curves of phosphate and silicate ions were linear in the range of 50 - 2,000 μg L-1 as P and 250 - 10,000 μg L-1 as Si. This method was successfully applied to water quality monitoring of Kurose-river watershed and it suggested that the effluent from a biological sewage treatment plant was significant source of phosphate ion in Kurose-river water.

ion-exclusion chromatography

phosphate ion

silicate ion

molybdenum-blue

river water

Biology [ 460 ]

eng

Elsevier Science BV

Copyright (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V.

[ISSN] 0003-2670

[DOI] 10.1016/j.aca.2008.02.043

[NCID] AA00524834

[DOI] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2008.02.043