CE Analysis of Cephalosporins in Environmental Waters

This study investigates an off-line solid phase extraction (SPE) for improving the sensitivity in the capillary electrophoretic (CE) analysis of four cephalosporins. Two sorbents—LiChrolut-C₁₈ and Oasis HLB—were used in a SPE process to detect cephalosporins in natural waters (tap, river and hospital sewage) and their performances were compared. By using Oasis HLB sorbent higher recoveries for river water were obtained (94–107% when 500 mL of sample were analyzed). The off-line SPE–CZE method was validated for river water with good detection limits (3 μg L⁻¹) and the linearity ranged between 5 and 200 μg L⁻¹.