Specific determination of bromate and iodate in ozonized water by ion chromatography with postcolumn derivatization and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract A specific determination for bromate, iodate and other halogen anions in drinking water by direct injection using ion chromatography (IC), with either inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or postcolumn derivatization, is described. The advantages of ICP-MS as an element-selective detector was evaluated for bromate and iodate by considering the comparison with the postcolumn derivatization. Samples were directly injected into the IC column, and halogen anions were separated. The eluates were directly introduced into ICP-MS and detected at 79 and 127 u. The detection limit ( S / N =3) for bromate and iodate with injection of 0.5 ml were 0.45 μg/l and 0.034 μg/l, respectively. IC combined with ICP-MS was applied to the simultaneous determination of bromate, bromide and other halogen anions in raw and ozonized water. Good agreement was obtained for the determined values by IC–ICP-MS and postcolumn derivatization. Furthermore, several bromine species different from bromate or bromide were detected by IC–ICP-MS.