Ion Chromatography: Fully Automated Inline Eluent Preparation

Metrohm (Switzerland) presents a system for fully automated inline eluent preparation. Based on Metrohm’s intelligent ion chromatography systems, the new technique eliminates error-prone and labour-intensive eluent preparation steps while improving the accuracy of the chromatographic analysis.

Using the 800 Dosino and the 849 Level Control as the only additional devices, Metrohm’s intelligent IC systems – the 850 Professional IC and the Compact IC family – can be easily extended to perform any inline eluent

preparation. Controlled by the MagIC Net™ software, the 849 Level Control monitors the eluent level while the 800 Dosino performs all dosing and liquid handling tasks.

In a test, consecutive injections of a 250-μg/L standard over approximately 20 days revealed an excellent retention-time stability. After more than 800 consecutive injections, relative standard deviations for standard anions and cations were smaller than 0.55 and 0.41% respectively. In the case of a 24-hour sequence, retention-time precision for anions and cations was better than 0.09 and 0.08%, respectively. In short, Metrohm’s inline eluent preparation system increases the retention-time reproducibility and allows the continuous determination of anions and cations without manual eluent preparation.