Simultaneous separation of nine metal ions and ammonium with nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis

A simple and fast method for simultaneous separation of nine metal cations Ni2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Zn2+ Cd2+, K+, Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+, and NH4+ in methanol is reported. The optimization for separation these 10 cations was achieved by using 0.5% acetic acid and 10 mM imidazole as electrolyte. The effects of water and ionic strength in the sample are discussed. The sensitive detection of transition metal ions was accomplished at 191 nm. The optimized method demonstrated high efficiency and good reproducibility, and was applied successfully to the qualitative and quantitative determination of transition metal ions in water samples, chemical reagents, oral zinc gluconate solution and human plasma.