Application of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography to the analysis of illicit drug seizures

The application of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) to the analysis of illicit drug seizures is presented. Areas investigated include general screening and qualitative and, in some instances, quantitative analysis of various drugs, including heroin, opium, cocaine, amphetamines, LSD and anabolic steroids. Due to its high efficiency, high selectivity and general applicability, MECC is well suited for forensic drug analyses.     

Comparison of ion chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for the determination of inorganic ions

The techniques of ion chromatography and capillary electrophoresis are compared as analytical methods for the determination of inorganic anions and cations. Comparison is made in the areas of stage of development, separation efficiency, separation selectivity, analytical performance parameters, method development procedures, applications, strenghts and weaknesses, and future directions. It is shown that the two techniques are complementary rather than competitive, especially with regard to their separation selectivities and the type of applications to which they are most suited.     

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography of proteins

Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) of proteins is a high resolution capillary electrophoretic (CE) analysis method that utilizes the hydrophobic and electrostatic interaction of protein analytes with surfactant micelles present in the buffer medium to facilitate separation. Through the manipulation of the protein-micelle interaction by the adjustment of variables such as surfactant concentration, solution pH, ionic strength, the presence of an organic modifier and the use of coated capillaries, MECC analyses of a wide variety of proteins have been optimized. MECC has been demonstrated to provide resolution of mixtures consisting of proteins with minor structural variations and also has provided the successful quantitative analysis of protein present in complex matrices. The adoption of protein MECC as a routine analytical technique may be dependent upon the successful interface of MECC with detection methodology, such as mass spectrometry, which can provide analyte characterization information.     

Micelles as pseudo-stationary phases in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

This review article describes some general comments on micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) from the viewpoint of pseudo-stationary phases and presents a compiled list of surfactants used for MEKC, prepared from published papers. We tried to give comments on some typical surfactants from the practical point of view.     

Improvement of quality control of speciation analysis using hyphenated techniques A decade of progress within the European Community

The awareness of a need for an improved control of environmental contamination levels has led to the development of new hyphenated techniques for the determination of a wide variety of chemical species (e.g., organotins, methyl-mercury, alkyl-lead compounds etc.). These techniques generally involve many analytical steps such as extraction, derivatisation, separation and detection which have to be carried out in such a way that the speciation is not changed during the abalytical process. The need for evaluating the method's performance has led the BCR programme of the European Commission (now Standards, Measurements and Testing programme) to conduct series of interlaboratory studies during the last decade. These projects followed a step-by-step approach for the evaluation of different steps of the analytical methods used, e.g., simple solutions to test the detection, cleaned extract to evaluate the separation, spiked samples to test the extraction and natural samples to evaluate the whole analytical procedures. These collaborative projects allowed most of the sources of errors related to either a technique or a laboratory to be detected and removed. This paper gives an account of discussions of possible errors occurring in speciation analysis and presents examples of technical scrutiny of hyphenated techniques using chromatography as applied to the determination of tributyltin, methyl-mercury and trimethyllead.     

Selective detection and identification of Se containing compounds--review and recent developments

The complexity of selenium (Se) chemistry in the environment and in living organisms presents broad analytical challenges. The selective qualitative and quantitative determination of particular species of this element is vital in order to understand selenium's metabolism and significance in biology, toxicology, clinical chemistry and nutrition. This calls for state-of-the-art analytical techniques such as hyphenated methods that are reviewed with particular emphasis on interfaced separation with element-selective detection and identification of the detected selenium compounds. Atomic spectral element specific detection for monitoring chromatographic eluent enabled quantitative determination of selenium species in selenized yeast and qualitative measurement for breath samples. Gas chromatography with atomic emission detection (AED) of ethylated species and fluoroacid ion pair HPLC applied to the analysis of currently produced or archived selenized yeast and Brassica juncea have revealed the presence of a previously unrecognised Se-S amino acid, S-(methylseleno)cysteine.     

Control of separation selectivity in micellar electrokinetic chromatography by modification of the micellar phase with solubilized organic compounds

On the basis of the data on the distribution of various neutral solutes between sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles and water, the control of separation selectivity in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) by modification of the micellar phase with organic additives has been proposed and applied to the separation of simple model compounds. It was found that the distribution constants between the micelles and water (K_d,mc), which were determined by means of MEKC, of the solutes possessing hydrophilic functional groups are much larger than those between heptane and water (K_d,hep), whereas the K_d,mc values of the solutes possessing no hydropholic groups are comparable to their K_d,hep values. This indicates that the former solutes are preferentially solubilized in the Stern layer of the micelles and that the latter are located in the hydrocarbon core. In MEKC separations of aromatic compounds and metal acetylacetonates, considerable changes in separation selectivity were caused by the addition of compounds possessing both hydrophilic functional groups such as alcohols, phenol and ketones to the SDS micellar solution. The variations of the retention factors of the analytes could be explained in terms of saturation of the solubilization sites in the Stern layer with the modifiers, specific interaction of the modifiers with the analytes via hydrogen bonding in the micelles, and expansion of the core volume with the hydrocarbon parts of the modifiers. Such effects of the micellar modification could improve the resolution as well as the selectivity of MEKC separations.     

Application of particles as pseudo-stationary phases in electrokinetic chromatography

Since the introduction of micelles by Terabe et al. (1984), many different species have been employed as carriers for electrokinetic chromatography. As it is not possible to separate uncharged solutes or ions with equal mobility in capillary electrophoresis, these phases are added to introduce or improve selectivity.

This review surveys the application of particles as pseudo-stationary phases. Up to now only very few applications exist based either on polymer particles for the separation of catechols and primary amines or silica-based material. With these particles separations are shown for phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and naphthalene derivatives. The characteristic properties of particles as pseudo-stationary phases and their benefits as well as their limitations are discussed.     

Part I. Chromatography using ultra-stable metal oxide-based stationary phases for HPLC

The first part of the review contrasts the main drawbacks of silica-based packings such as their relative thermal and chemical instability with excellent stability of metal oxides. The paper concerns mainly ZrO2, TiO2 and Al2O3. Methods of preparation of spherical particles for HPLC are described. Surface chemistry of the oxides is, however, very different from that of silica. Ability of the oxides to ion- and ligand exchange is discussed from a chromatographic point of view.