Simultaneous determination of potassium nitrate and sodium monofluorophosphate in dentifrices by single column ion chromatography.

The simultaneous determination of potassium nitrate and sodium monofluorophosphate in dentifrices by single column ion chromatography is described. Nitrate and monofluorophosphate are extracted from the dentifrice with deionized water and separated by a low capacity anion separator column with 0.2% sodium benzoate (adjusted to pH 5.8 +/- 0.1 with formic acid) as the mobile phase. A conductivity meter is used for concentration measurements. The method has been applied to commercial dentifrices containing both potassium nitrate and sodium monofluorophosphate. The mean recoveries for potassium nitrate and monofluorophosphate from spiked samples were 99.0% and 99.2%, respectively, with corresponding standard deviations of 1.73% and 2.55%. The minimum detectable concentration is 5 micrograms/ml for both nitrate and monofluorophosphate.