Derivatization Ion Chromatography for the Determination of Monoethanolamine in Presence of Hydrazine in PHWR Steam-Water Circuits

A simple, rapid and accurate method for the determination of monoethanolamine (MEA) in PHWR steam-water circuits has been developed. MEA is added in the feed water to provide protection against corrosion while hydrazine is added to scavenge dissolved oxygen. The quantitative determination of MEA in presence of hydrazine was accomplished using derivatization ion chromatography with conductometric detection in nonsuppressed mode. A Metrosep cation 1-2 analytical column and a Metrosep cartridge were used for cation separation. A mixture of 4 mM tartaric acid, 20% acetone and 0.05 mM HNO(3) was used as eluent. Acetone in the mobile phase leads to the formation of different derivatives with MEA and hydrazine. The interferences due Na(+) and NH(4) (+) were eliminated by adopting a simple pretreatment procedure employing OnGuard-H cartridge. The limit of detection limit of MEA was 0.1 μg mL(−1) and the relative standard deviation was 2% for the overall method. The recovery of MEA added was in the range 95%–102%. The method was applied to the determination of MEA in steam generator water samples.