Determination of iron in real samples by high performance capillary electrophoresis in combination with thermal lensing

Natural iron concentrations in real water samples have been determined by thermal lensing as a high performance capillary electrophoresis detector. 1,10-Phenanthroline was used as a chromogenic reagent, which forms a stable complex with Fe(II) but not with Fe (III). The interferences by other cations can be neglected by a combination of this photometric technique with high performance capillary electrophoresis. Laser induced thermal lens spectroscopy is demonstrated as a new technique for the measurement of small absorbances in the picoliter detection volume of a capillary. A limit of detection of 36 nmol/L with a signal to noise ratio of 7?:?1 was achieved using a 75 μm fused silica capillary.