Determination of iodide in seawater and urine by size exclusion chromatography with iodine–starch complex

A novel method for the determination of iodide by size exclusion chromatography was established. The method was simple and highly sensitive with good precision. Iodide was converted to iodine, then sequestered with starch, and separated from the matrix using a Shim-pack DIOL-150 (250×7.9 mm) size exclusion column with methanol–0.01 mol l−1 aqueous phosphoric acid (10:90, v/v) as mobile phase at 1.2 ml min−1 and UV detection at 224 nm. The calibration graph was linear from 1.0 ng ml−1 to 100.0 ng ml−1 for iodide with a correlation coefficient of 0.9992 (n=6). The detection limit was 0.2 ng ml−1. The method was successfully applied to the determination of iodide in seawater and urine. The recovery was from 92% to 103% and the relative standard deviation was in the range of 1.5% to 3.7%.