High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for determination of trace nitrate and nitrite in dew, snow and rain water

3^rd International Conference on Hydrology & Meteorology

September 15-16, 2014 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, India

Yuegang Zuo, Xiaofei Lu and Yiwei Deng

Accepted Abstracts: Hydrol Current Res

Abstract :

Although nitrate has been determined routinely in most rain water surveys due to the concerns about the causes of acid rain and the eutrophication of surface water, measurements of nitrite in snow and other atmospheric condense phases are scarce. Recently, it was reported an ion-pair HPLC method for the determination of nitrite and nitrate in dew, and rain waters. In this presentation, a more sensitive hydrophilic interaction HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of nitrite and nitrate in snow, dew, rain and other environmental samples is reported. Quantification was carried out by the peak area integration method using a Waters HPLC 2695 Module with UV-visible detection at 215 nm. A clean separation of analytes was achieved in less than 10 minutes. Limits of quantification (LODs) of 5.0 ppb for nitrate and nitrite were obtained. This developed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of snow, dew and rain samples collected in the Southeastern Massachusetts. The concentration of nitrate and nitrite has been found in the range from undetectable to as high as 3.5 and 0.90 ppm respectively. The method proved a sensitive, accurate, and cost-effective technique for the analysis of trace level nitrate and nitrite in snow, dew, rain water and other environmental water samples.