CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS OF METHYLMERCURY WITH INJECTION BY SAMPLE STACKING

A procedure for separation and quantitation of methylmercury by capill ary electrophoresis using sample stacking as the injection technique i s presented. The CE conditions have been optimized in order to separat e the methylmercury from the excess cysteine peak and to concentrate l arge volumes of sample obtaining a low detection limit. Under the prop osed operational conditions, the detection limit (S/N=3) was 12 ng g(- 1) and the limit of quantitation (S/N=10) was 20 ng g(-1) with a linea r range of 20-100 ng g(-1) (as methylmercury in samples). The method w as tested using different reference materials with a certified methylm ercury content.