A new capillary electrophoresis buffer for determining organic and inorganic anions in electroplating bath with surfactant additives

Monitoring of trace impurities in electroplating bath is needed to meet EU requirements for WEEE and RoHS and for quality control of electrodeposits. Methods using IC and 100% aqueous CE buffer were found producing non-repeatable results attributed to interference of surfactants and major methanesulphonate anion. A new CE buffer containing 1.5 mM tetraethylenepentaamine, 3 mM 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid and 15 mM Tris in 20% (v/v) methanol at pH = 8.4 was shown to enhance the separation window, reduce interaction between buffer and bath constituents, and give satisfactory repeatability with baseline separation for 14 organic and inorganic anions within 14 min, good repeatability for migration time (0.32–0.57% RSD), satisfactory peak area and peak height (2.9–4.5 and 3–4.7% respectively), low detection limit (S/N = 2, 20–150 ppb), and wide working ranges (0.1–100 ppm). The CE buffer with 20% (v/v) methanol has demonstrated its capability for identifying anion impurities causing problem in aged tin bath and the use of only 10-fold dilution to produce reliable results for quality assessment in plating bath containing high surfactant additives.