The analysis of EDTA in water by HPLC

This paper describes the development of a method for determining ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in various types of water at low μg/l concentrations by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). After a short sample pretreatment the sample was analyzed using reversed-phase ion-pair liquid chromatography. Ultraviolet absorbance detection was applied at 254 nm. The method is suitable for the determination of EDTA in surface water, bank filtrate, infiltrated water and drinking water. The method is simple and has a low limit of detection (0.8 μg/l). In general, the method provides calibration curves with good regression characteristics (correlation coefficient > 0.998). To determine the concentration of EDTA 31 samples from several Dutch water companies were analyzed.