High Performance Anion Chromatography of Gadolinium Chelates.

High performance anion chromatography (HPIC) method to separate ionic Gd chelates, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and free matrix anions was developed. At alkaline pHs, polydentate complexing agents such as ethylene-diamine-tetraacetate, diethylene-triamine pentaacetate and trans-1,2-diamine-cyclohexane-tetraacetate tend to form stable Gd chelate anions and can be separated by anion exchange. Separations were studied in the simple isocratic chromatographic run over the wide range of pH and concentration of carbonate eluent using suppressed conductivity detection. The ion exchange and complex forming equilibria were quantitatively described and demonstrated in order to understand major factors in the control of selectivity of Gd chelates. Parameters of optimized resolution between concurrent ions were presented on a 3D resolution surface. The applicability of the developed method is represented by the simultaneous analysis of Gd chelates and organic/inorganic anions. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy  (ICP-AES) analysis was used for confirmation of HPIC results for Gd. Collection protocols for the heart-cutting procedure of chromatograms were applied. SPE procedures were also developed not only to extract traces of free gadolinium ions from samples, but also to remove the high level of interfering anions of the complex matrices. The limit of detection, the recoverability and the linearity of the method were also presented.