Ion chromatographic separation and determination of phosphate and arsenate in water and hair

A simple and sensitive method for the sequential determination of phosphate and arsenate was developed based on initial ion chromatographic separation followed by detection as the ion-association complex formed by heteropolymolybdophosphate and arsenate with bismuth. With 200 microl sample injection and separation on a AS4A-SC column using an eluent of 3.5 mM sodium hydrogen carbonate-10.0 mM sodium hydroxide, the detection limits which are calculated as the concentration equivalent to twice the baseline noise, were found to be 0.8 microg/l and 4.2 microg/l for P and As, respectively. Spiked samples were analyzed and recoveries were found to be satisfactory in the range of 95-105% for phosphate and 90-105% for arsenate. Samples of water and hair were analyzed by the proposed method.