Ion Chromatography and Anion Standards

Inorganic Ventures is a leading manufacturer of first-class certified reference materials (CRMs) suitable for analytical and preparative chemistry.

Off-the-shelf standards are appropriate for system calibration in some applications, but the company specializes in the development of custom standards for specific end-user goals.

The company is able to supply a comprehensive range of single-element reference materials for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy or multi-anion standards for ion chromatography. All solutions are fully traceable and designed to meet customers’ exact specifications.

Anion standards are carefully tuned control materials designed to ensure quality assurance and control (QA/QC) in ion chromatography. Inorganic Ventures offer a range of made-to-order anion standard solutions. These are available in single- and multi-anion formats and at specific, user-defined concentrations.

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Using Anion Standards for IC

Ion chromatography - also known as ion-exchange chromatography - is a trusted and respected analytical method capable of separating solvents into their individual components.

This technique sees samples pumped into a chromatographic column that contains an ion-exchange medium. This medium separates ionic species within the sample based on their inherent physicochemical properties.

The rate of elution from the column is monitored using a detector, and the retention time for each separated species is calculated to determine precise ionic concentrations.

This method is widely used to measure the concentration of common anions in a number of solvent types, including:

• Chloride (CL^-)
• Fluoride (F^-)
• Sulfate (SO₄^2-)
• Lactate (C₃H₆O₃)
• Nitrate (NO₃^-)
• Nitrite (NO₂^-)
• Glutarate (C₃H₆(COOH)₆)

The use of reagent-grade CRMs is essential when looking to determine anions in samples of unknown composition. These CRMs also enable powerful concentration analysis at trace levels and the sub-parts per million (ppm) range.

An anion standard, such as CN-1000-25-20ML, allows users to effectively calibrate ion chromatography systems for critical applications, for example, characterizing potential toxicity by testing cyanides in drinking water.

The use of Bromide (Br) anion standards, such as ICBR1-125ML, is beneficial in QA/QC applications, such as the chromatographic screening of flowback water samples.

While high-purity single anion standards are advantageous in a number of applications, testing frequently requires the use CRMs comprised of multiple anions to ensure accurate characterization of a full sample spectrum.

Anion Standards from Inorganic Ventures

Inorganic Ventures has extensive experience in the development of fully-traceable custom anion standards in line with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certifications. All of the company’s off-the-shelf and custom-made CRMs are engineered to ensure the utmost stability and ease of use for operators.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Inorganic Ventures, Inc.

For more information on this source, please visit Inorganic Ventures, Inc.