A derivatization approach using pyrylium salts for the sensitive and simple determination of sulfide in spring water by high performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatography method based on pre-column derivatization with thepyrylium salts (4-[p-(N,N-dimethylamino)phenyl]-2,6-diphenylpyrylium perchlorate (LN1) and 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium tetrafluoroborate (L1)) has been developed for the determination of sulfide. After thereaction of sulfide ions with LN1 or L1 aiming at the formation of the corresponding thiopyrylium deriva-tives LN3 or L3, they were separated on a C18 column using phosphate buffer and acetonitrile as eluent,and afterwards detected with a UV/vis detector. By using the described method, sulfide ions can be deter-mined in the range of 5.12 486.4 g.L−1or 1.024 20.48 g.L−1by means of L1 or LN1, respectively. Inour experiments, the relative standard deviation was not higher than 2% and the recovery coefficientwas in the range of 88 102%. The proposed method was applied to the determination of sulfide in springwater samples from Busko Zdrój and Uniejów health resorts located in Poland.