A new method of ion chromatography technology for speedy determination and analysis in organic electrosynthesis of glyoxylic acid

Based on ion chromatography (IC) technology, we have developed a new method that combines ion chromatography with a conductivity detector to separate and determine the substances of glyoxal, glycolic acid, oxalic acid and glyoxylic acid. The ion chromatography was applied for the first time in quantitative determination of substances involved in electrosynthesis of glyoxylic acid. The method has been applied to separate and analyze simultaneously either glyoxylic acid and glyoxal in electroxidation of glyoxal, or glyoxylic acid and oxalic acid in electroreduction of oxalic acid. An aqueous Na2CO3–NaHCO3 or NaOH–Na2CO3 solution was confirmed to be the most desirable eluent. The experimental results demonstrated that the detection sensitivity is ahead of ppm grade, and the variation coefficients such as the retention time, the peak height and the peak area outperform 2%. All the recoveries of the detected substances are ranged between 97 and 103%. The method exhibits advantages of high selectivity, high sensitivity, speediness and simple apparatus requirement. Furthermore, simultaneous determination of a mixture of several substances can be achieved by the developed method, and even a neutral molecule of glyoxal can be also determined by choosing an appropriate composition and concentration of eluent.