Determination of low thiourea concentrations in industrial process water and natural samples using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A rapid LC method was developed to determine thiourea in natural samples and freshly prepared as well as used tin-baths from the galvanic industry, with LC on a C-18-bonded silica column and with doubly distilled water as eluent. The retention time of thiourea is 1.35 min +/- 5%. UV detection is at 236 nm. Small sample volumes of 10-50 mul allow detection down to 2 mug/l thiourea without any interference by heavy metals or organic compounds and in the case of marine samples by mineral salts. The presented technique should be highly useful for industrial purposes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.