Abstract: An ionic exchange high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) method for determination of trace impurities in terephthalic acid was developed. The method was systematically optimized. By adjusting the pH of the mobile phase, the concentration of buffer solution is reduced to 0.13 mol/L and the analysis time is decreased to less than 10 minutes. The linearity correlation coefficient of the standard curve is more than 0.999 8, the recoveries range from 98.7% to 102.2% and the relative standard deviation(RSD) is less than (3.6%.)