SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF HYDROXYLAMINE, N-METHYLHYDROXYLAMINE AND N,N-DIMETHYLHYDROXYLAMINE BY ION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Hydroxylamine and N-alkylhydroxylamines have been separated and analyzed using ion chromatography with conductivity and amperometric detectors. Conductivity detection is simple, but lacks selectivity. Amperometric detection provides good selectivity at modest working electrode operating potentials. However, in order to realize the selectivity, it is necessary to pretreat the working electrode which results in a significant reduction of the detector operating potential. While both conductivity and amperometric detectors have the capability to quantify nanomole amounts of hydroxylamines (absolute amount injected), amperometric detection possesses superior selectivity and sensitivity.