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.