SPECIATION OF ORGANOMERCURIALS IN MARINE SAMPLES USING CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

A rapid method for speciation and determination of organomercury compo unds in biological samples of marine origin using Capillary Electropho resis (CE) is reported. Organomercurials were extracted from the sampl es by means of the classical Westoo procedure thus giving organomercur y-cysteine complexes which can be separated from each other by means o f CE resulting in effective speciation. Electrophoretic separation was achieved in an open silica capillary tube at 15-18 kV using a 100mM s odium borate buffer (pH 8.35). All mercury species were distinctively separated within 12 min. Results are presented for the analysis of rea l marine samples and reference materials, and compared with those obta ined by the GC commonly accepted procedure.