Enhanced conductometric detection of cyanide in suppressed ion chromatography

Weak-acid anions such as borate and cyanide, present problems in chemically suppressed ion chromatography, since the acids are weakly ionised, giving low conductivity and therefore decreased sensitivity. For borate this problem was overcome by converting the weak acid to its sodium salt, by the use of a second anion micromembrane suppressor (AMMS) as an ion exchange reactor (IER), flushed by EDTA reagent, to supply sodium ions for the conversion. This paper will discuss the use of this IER system to determine cyanide, which is also a very weak acid, with a similar pKa to borate. The detection limit for cyanide of 50 μM compare favourably with indirect conductivity detection.