Simultaneous determination of glucose, d-gluconic, 2-keto-d-gluconic and 5-keto-d-gluconic acids by ion chromatography-pulsed amperometric detection with column-switching technique

A simple ion chromatographic (IC) method for simultaneous determination of glucose, d-gluconic acid (DGA), 2-keto-d-gluconic acid (2-KDG) and 5-keto d-gluconic acid (5-KDG) was proposed, with pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) and column-switching technique. Using this technique, the four compounds were detected simultaneously in a short time with strongly retained compounds (2-KDG and 5-KDG) eluted out prior to weakly retained compounds (glucose and DGA). Under the optimized conditions, the method showed good linearity in the range of 0.01–20 mg L−1 with determination coefficients (R2)≥99.84%. Low detection limits (LODs) in the range of 0.87–2.59 μg L−1 and good repeatability (RSD<3%, n=6) were obtained. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of the four compounds in the fermentation broth, in which Gluconobacter oxydans was used to produce gluconic acids from glucose.