DETERMINATION OF SULPHUR SPECIES IN THE PRESENCE OF COMMON ANIONS WITH INDIRECT MEASUREMENT OF SULPHIDE BY ION CHROMATOGRAPHY (IC)

Abstract

ABSTRACT A two-step ion chromatographic method for the determination of sulphur containing anions with indirect measurement of sulphide in the presence of common anions in tannery wastewater has been developed. In the first step, species like , , and SCN− are separated isocratically on an anion exchange separator column using the mobile phase mixture solution and quantified by conductivity detection. The total sulphate equivalent of all these species is then calculated. In the second step, in another aliquot of the sample, all the sulphur species are converted into sulphate using ammoniacal hydrogen peroxide and quantified as sulphate. The amount of sulphide is then arrived at by subtracting the total sulphate equivalent obtained in the first stage from the total sulphate obtained in the second step. The detection limits for all the ions are less than 0.5 ppm with reproducibility of better than 10%.