Separation and determination of pyrrolidinium ionic liquid cations by ion chromatography with direct conductivity detection

A method for rapid and simultaneous determination of multiple pyrrolidinium ionic liquid cations by ion chromatography with direct conductivity detection was developed.Chromatographic separations were performed on a cation exchange column using ethylenediamine-acetonitrile as the mobile phase.The effects of chromatographic column and the mobile phase,as well as the column temperature on the retention of the cations were investigated.The retention rules of the cations under different chromatographic conditions were formulated.The retention of the cations followed the carbon number rule.The method has been successfully applied to the determination of three ionic liquids synthesized by a chemical laboratory.