An Improved Ion Chromatography Methods for Analysis of Acetic and Formic Acid Vapours

Air quality monitoring for acetic and formic acid vapours inmuseum galleries and storage environments is commonlyconducted using passive sampling and ion chromatography(IC). We report development of a rapid IC method with 2 to60-fold improvement in detection limits for acetate and formate. Baseline resolution is achieved in 4.5 min using anAS11-HC anion exchange column with 4 mM NaOH eluent at1.5 mL/min flow rate. The detection limits are 12 μg/mL(0.24 ng) for acetate and 11 μg/mL (0.21 ng) for formate.The method was successfully used for air quality monitoring in a Los Angeles museum warehouse.