A simple apparatus for the determination of carbonate is developed. Carbon dioxide is liberated from carbonates by hydrochloric acid in a sealed glass reactor. Head space gas in the reactor containing air and carbon dioxide is directly introduced into separating column with 4-way cock, and detected with thermal conductivity detector. Digital integrator is used for measuring the peak area of carbon dioxide.
Volume of the reactor cell, inject-time (which is the most important factor for determining carbon dioxide in this apparatus.) and some other operating conditions are discussed. Thus, under the optimum conditions, accurate and reproducible data were obtained more rapidly (within 10 minutes) in comparison with other conventional methods.
This technique is particularly applicable to the determination of sodium carbonate in heavy duty detergents.