Trace determination of disinfection by-products in drinking water by cyclic ion chromatography with large-volume direct injection

A novel cyclic ion chromatography (IC) system was developed for the simultaneous determination of trace disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water. Five DBPs (chlorite, bromate, chlorate, dichloroacetic acid, and trichloroacetic acid) were sensitively determined by large-volume direct injection, and the interferences of dominant inorganic anions present in water were eliminated online through the cyclic determination of the target analytes. Under optimized conditions, the obtained limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.18–1.91 μg L(−1) based on a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3 and an injection volume of 1.0 mL. The RSDs for peak area and retention time were in the range of 0.13–1.03% and 1.24–4.29%, respectively. Satisfactory recoveries between 92.3% and 106.4% were obtained by adding three concentration gradients of standards to the drinking water samples. The proposed method has advantages such as high sensitivity, facile automation, and no sample pretreatment, and might be a promising approach for routine analysis.