Extraction and detection of quaternary ammonium ionic liquid cations in water samples

Environmental Chemistry Letters (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

The recent development of ionic liquids may induce environmental pollution, yet there is a lack of sensitive analytical methods to detect traces of ionic liquids, notably for quaternary ammonium ionic liquids. Here, we set up a method based on solid-phase extraction and ion chromatography combined to analyze quaternary ammonium ionic liquid cations in river water samples. Cations included tetramethylammonium, tetraethylammonium, tetrapropylammonium and tetrabutylammonium. We used methanesulfonic acid–acetonitrile as mobile phase in a cation-exchange column with carboxylic acid functional groups. A strong acid cation-exchange solid-phase extraction column was used for extraction and enrichment, then water–methanol was eluted to wash impurities, and finally the analytes were eluted with H3PO4–KH2PO4 buffer solution because this buffer has a low conductivity signal which avoids interferences with cation detection. We obtained a detection limit of 0.003 mg/L for river samples. Precision and accuracy met the requirements of quantitative analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KF2017-21).

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Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, 150025, People’s Republic of China

    Sheng Liu, Hong Yu & Ya-jie Ma

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, People’s Republic of China

    Ya-qi Cai

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  1. Sheng Liu
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  2. Hong Yu
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Correspondence to Hong Yu or Ya-jie Ma.

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Cite this article

Liu, S., Yu, H., Ma, Yj. et al. Extraction and detection of quaternary ammonium ionic liquid cations in water samples. Environ Chem Lett (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-020-01163-x

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Keywords

  • Environmental water
  • Ion chromatography
  • Ionic liquids
  • Quaternary ammonium cations
  • Solid-phase extraction