Sodium azide is a propellant in automotive air bags, and also has applications as a preservative, and in agricultural pest control.
Perchlorates are strong oxidants, one of the primary oxidants used in solid rocket fuel.
The automotive, agricultural, biomedical, and explosives industries all may have an interest in sensitive assays for one or both of these anions. For more information on environmental and health hazards click on azide and perchlorate . The assay for azide by was recently improved by using ion chromatography on a Dionex AS-10 Ion Exchange column and a sodium hydroxide eluent. We have seen no interference from acetate, bromide, chloride, fluoride nitrate, nitrite, perchlorate, phosphate and sulfate in this assay. Nitrate has been a problem in past assays, but is easily separated from azide in this assay.