Ionic liquids as additives for separation of benzoic acid and chlorophenoxy acid herbicides by capillary electrophoresis

Ionic liquids (ILs) were tested as additives to phosphate-acetate buffer for the separation of chlorophenoxy and benzoic herbicide acids. The effects of buffer concentration, buffer pH, IL concentration, and concentration of organic solvent were investigated. It was found that in the presence of 40 mM phosphate-acetate containing 10% acetonitrile at pH 4.5, addition of 10 mM 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoium could reverse EOF. The shoulder-merged peaks of two herbicide acids, 2,4-dichlorobenzoic acid and 3,5-dichlorobenzoic acid, were successfully resolved by the addition of IL cation. Apart from these, results showed different IL cations had different influences on the migration behavior of some of the analytes, while IL anions did not lead to obvious difference on the separation.