Conductimetric detection of anions of very weak acids by incomplete suppressed ion chromatography

A novel method, incomplete suppressed conductimetric detection, has been de veloped for the determination of anions of very weak acids. The principle o f the method was discussed. Theoretical considerations involved the choice of background conductance and its effect on linearity and detection limits. Results showed that for both arsenous acid and boric acid, the sensitivity was improved greatly with low background conductance, compared with the su ppressed conductimetric method. With 250 mg/l boric acid, there were 261- a nd 1002-fold increases in peak height and peak area, respectively. Within t he linear range of the detection, quantified by peak areas, the linear corr elation coefficients were 0.9991 and 0.9985 for arsenous acid and boric aci d, respectively. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.