Sensitive detection methods for nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-) ions are essential to understand the nitrogen cycle and for environmental protection and public health. Herein, we report a detection method that combines ion-chromatographic separation of NO2- and NO3-, on-line photochemical conversion of these ions to peroxynitrite (ONOO-) by irradiation with a 222 nm excimer lamp, and chemiluminescence from the reaction between luminol and ONOO-. The detection limits for NO2- and NO3- were 0.01 and 0.03 μM, respectively, with linear ranges of 0.010-2.0 and 0.10-3.0 μM, respectively, at an injection volume of 1 μL. The results obtained by the proposed method for seawater analysis corresponded with those of a reference method (AutoAnalyzer based on the Griess reaction). As luminol chemiluminescence can measure ONOO- at picomolar concentrations, our method is expected to be able to detect NO2- and NO3- at picomolar concentrations owing to the high conversion ratio to ONOO- (>60%), assuming that contamination and background chemiluminescence issues can be resolved. This method has the potential to emerge as an innovative technology for NO2- and NO3- detection in various samples.
Keywords: chemiluminescence; excimer lamp; luminol; nitrate; nitrite; peroxynitrite; photoconversion; seawater.