Capillary electrophoresis determination of nitrate and nitrite in high-salt perchlorate solutions for the UC dissolution study

The capillary electrophoresis method with direct UV detection is proposed for the determination of nitrite and nitrate in high-salt perchlorate solutions issued from uranium carbide dissolution. The isotachophoretic sample stacking was used to compensate for the perchlorate matrix interference. Simple electrolyte composed of 120 mM formiate buffer, pH 3.8 enabled the nitrate and nitrite determination in the presence of up to 1000-fold excess of perchlorate with 2 μM and 4 μM detection limits for nitrate and nitrite, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of nitrate and nitrite in high-salt non-irradiated uranium carbide dissolution samples.