Ion chromatographic preconcentration of Cu and Cd from ultra-high-purity water and determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A method based on preconcentration of Cu and Cd from ultra-high-purity water by ion chromatography (IC) and determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry is described. A small low-capacity ion-exchange concentrator Dionex HPIC-CG5 and mobile phase of 3 mM pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDCA) are used. Water samples are loaded onto the preconcentration column at a flow-rate ranging from 1 to 3.5 ml min−1. Large sample volumes (up to 200 ml) can be loaded onto the concentrator without losing metal ions. Elution is carried out in the reverse direction of sample loading and the volumes of effluent are as small as 0.150 and 0.200 ml for copper and cadmium, respectively. Under these conditions the preconcentrated ions coelute. The detection limits, based on the Hubaux–Vos method, for Cu using a 1300-fold preconcentration in the IC step was found to be 1 pg ml−1, and was limited due to impurity in PDCA, while the detection limit found for Cd using a 1000-fold preconcentration was 0.02 pg ml−1. Ultra-high-purity water produced by a Millipore system is successfully analysed by the proposed method and the content of Cu and Cd are found to lie in the range 1–10 pg ml−1.