2.1 Analytical Methods
Aqueous dissolved ion analysis was carried out on a Dionex® ICS 3000 reagent-free ion chromatography system (Dionex Corp., Sunnyvale, CA, USA), using IonPac® CS12A and IonPac® AG19 columns. Cation analysis was carried out in isocratic mode, set to run for 20 minutes, while anion analysis was carried out in gradient mode with a total run time of 35 minutes. Methanesulfonic acid (MSA, 20 mM) and potassium hydroxide (KOH, 10 mM) were applied as eluents for cations and anions, respectively. Column temperature was set to 30oC. Sample injection volume of 1 mL was applied for all runs. Dilution factor of 351 and 3-point calibration were adopted for result quantification, using the Chromeleon®software v. 6.80.