Carboxylic acids measurements with ionic chromatography

In this short note, we show that measurements of acetate concentration by ionic chromatography with a Dionex AS4A-SC column is prone to interferences with lactate, glycolate, propionate and iodate. All the species can be present in environmental samples at significant concentrations, as demonstrated with a surface snow sample collected in Greenland. We indicate IC run conditions using a Dionex AS11 column that can overcome this problem.