Determination of aromatic amines in water samples by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical and fluorescence detection

Two capillary electrophoresis methods have been compared for the determination of aniline derivatives in environmental water samples. With the first method the anilines were separated as cations by free zone electrophoresis at low pH, and detected by amperometry. For this, the separation capillary was connected through a palladium field decoupler to an electrochemical detection cell which had been modified to match the volume scale of the separation. Most anilines tested, except chlorinated compounds, could be detected with full sensitivity at a detection potential of +0.7 V. Detection limits with this detection scheme were on a low μg/l level. The alternative method involved the derivatization of the anilines with fluorescamine, the separation of the derivatives formed by micellar electrokinetic chromatography, and fluorescence detection. For detection a lamp-based, fibre optics instrument was used. Detection limits with fluorimetry were comparable with those obtained with amperometric detection (in the order of 1 μg/l). Still, this method was preferred since it gave a higher separation efficiency and shorter analysis times (approximately 4 min). The most important argument, however, was its higher reliability and ease-of-handling. Preliminary experiments with water samples collected in areas where pollution with anilines may be expected showed that the method is highly specific, with few interferences showing up in the electropherograms.