Pyrohydrolysis–ion chromatographic method with spectrophotometric detection for quantification of chlorine at trace levels in PHWR structural materials

A simple method for the determination of chlorine in PHWR structural materials using pyrohydrolysis–ion chromatographic method with spectrophotometric detection is explained in the present paper. A mixture of Na₂CO₃ and NaHCO₃ as eluent and AgNO₃ as post column reagent has been used in the developed method. Clear separation of chloride from other interfering anions is the distinct advantage of this method compared to conductivity detection enabling low level quantification of chloride using pre-concentration column. Effects of different parameters have been studied during the development of PH-IC method. The spiking standard recovery was found to be more than 90%. The analytical results of the developed method have been compared with the reported non-suppressed ion-chromatography with conductivity detection method and found to be in good agreement.