Determination of Nitrite by Pre-Column Derivatization and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract
Nitrite has been determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography by its pre-column reaction with 2-aminobiphenyl to give a diazonium salt and with iodide to form 2-iodobiphenyl. Chromatographic analysis was done using a C18-column, a mobile phase of aceto-nitrile - 0.05M sulfuric acid, 60:40 (v/v), detection at 254 nm and using biphenyl as an internal standard. The pre-column derivatization required about 8 min and the chromatographic separation was complete in about 10 min. As low as 8 μg 1−1 of nitrite could be determined with a limit of detection of 2 μg 1−1 Application of the proposed method to river water and pharmaceutical tablets has been demonstrated.