Quantitative determination of oxalate and other organic acids in drinking water at low microgram/1 concentrations

In this research, a recently developed ion chromatography method for organic acids was expanded to include oxalate. A major challenge was that oxalate elutes between inorganic anions such as sulfate, phosphate, bromide and nitrate, which are often present in much higher concentrations than oxalate. Optimization of the previously reported method made it possible to determine oxalate in these matrices. However, for those samples in which higher inorganic anion concentrations caused the oxalate peak to be obscured, a "heart-cut" column switching technique was used as an alternative. The method detection limit for oxalate was 9 micrograms/l with the direct approach and 6 micrograms/l for the "heat-cut" technique. These modifications represent a valuable supplement to a recently developed method for monitoring ozonation by-products in drinking water.