Capillary electrophoretic method for the determination of inorganic and organic anions in real samples: Strategies for improving repeatability and reproducibility

Selectivity and robustness of the pyromellitic acid (PMA) based background electrolyte was improved in order to increase its applicability for routine analysis of inorganic and organic anions in real samples. An electrolyte composed of 6.75 mM PMA, 0.5 mM hexamethonium hydroxide as electroosmotic flow (EOF) modifier, Ca2+ 0.05 mM as complexation agent and pH adjusted to 7.6 with TEA 1 M allows for the separation of 22 inorganic and organic anions in less than 17 min. Good RSDs for within-day migration time reproducibility (0.03–0.9%) and day-to-day analyses (0.04–1.4%) were obtained by the use of two internal standards, allowing for an accurate compound identification. The detection limits ranged from 0.1 to 0.4 mg L−1 (S/N = 3) for hydrodynamic injection (1250 mbar s). The applicability of the proposed method was demonstrated by the analysis of inorganic and organic anions in diverse real samples. The recoveries obtained ranged from 93 to 106%.