Analytical potential of fluorescein analogues for ultrasensitive determinations of phosphorus-containing amino acid herbicides by micellar electrokinetic chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence detection

The analytical potential of three fluorescein analogues, fluorescein isothiocyanate isomer I (FITC), 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazinylamino) fluorescein (DTAF) and 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein N-succinimidyl ester (CFSE), as labelling reagents for the ultrasensitive determination of phosphorus-containing amino acid herbicides (glufosinate and glyphosate) and aminomethylphosphonic acid (the major metabolite of glyphosate) by nonionic surfactant micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection was investigated. Practical aspects related to label chemistry and MEKC separation showed that DTAF is the best choice for the determination of these herbicides; in addition, the most important features of these reagents for the derivatization of amino compounds are discussed. The optimum procedure includes a derivatization step of the herbicides at 40 degrees C with DTAF for 1 h and a 2-fold dilution prior to MEKC analysis, which is conducted within about 10 min using Brij-35 in the running buffer. This nonionic surfactant improves the selectivity and therefore the sensitivity of the method at low analyte concentrations by shifting the interfering peaks of the DTAF excess. The lowest detectable analyte concentration ranged from 0.06 to 0.16 microg/L with a precision of 2.1-3.2%. These results indicate that nonionic surfactant MEKC-LIF is useful as a selective, rapid and sensitive tool for the determination of these herbicides showing a great potential for their analysis in environmental samples without previous enrichment steps. The proposed method surpasses other chromatographic alternatives in terms of limit of detection and sample requirements for the analysis.