Flow-injection sample preconcentration for ion-pair chromatography of trace metals in waters

Selected trace transition metal ions have been determined in an FIA/HPLC hyphenated system using on-line preconcentration on cellulose functionalised sorbent Cellex P. For HPLC separation ion-pair chromatography was employed with spectrophotometric detection at 510 nm using post-column derivatisation with PAR. Favourable kinetic conditions of sorption and elution as well as optimisation of hyphenated system allowed to obtain detection limits at sub-(mu)g L^-1 level at 25 min preconcentration time. The developed method was employed for determination of Co(II), Ni(II), Cd(II) and Mn(II) in river water with reasonable agreement of obtained results with electrothermal AAS determination.