A new method for separation and determination of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) in water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography based on anion exchange stationary phase of ionic liquid modified silica.

In this work, N-methylimidazolium-chloride ionic liquid functionalized silica was prepared and used as an anion-exchange stationary phase for separation of chromium species by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection at 200 nm. The Cr(VI) as HCr2O7(-) and chelated Cr(III) with potassium hydrogen phthalate (PHP) as Cr(PHP)2 (-) was retained on the prepared column and separated using a mobile phase composed of 5% methanol in 25 mM phosphate buffer at pH 6.5. Several variables affecting the chelation/separation steps were modeled by response surface methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken (BBD) design. The significance of the independent variables and their interactions were tested by the analysis of variances (ANOVA) with 95% confidence limit. Under the optimized conditions, the Cr(III) and Cr(VI) anionic species were well separated with a single peak for each Cr species at retention times of 2.3 and 4.3 min, respectively. The relationship between the peak area and concentration was linear in the range of 0.025-30 for Cr(III) and 0.5-20 mg L(-1) for Cr(VI) with detection limits of 0.010 and 0.210 mg L(-1) for Cr(III) and Cr(VI), respectively. The proposed method was validated by simultaneous separation and determination of the Cr species in tap and underground water samples without impose to any pretreatment.