COUPLING OF CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS WITH ICP-MS FOR SPECIATION INVESTIGATIONS

An online hyphenation of capillary electrophoresis (CE) with inductive ly coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is developed, using a hom emade nebulizer as the interface. The high resolution power of CE is u sed for the separation of metal species, whereas ICP-MS is taken for e lement specific detection with low detection limits. Metal species of standard solutions and real samples are separated and monitored by UV and ICP-MS. After optimization, electropherograms with high resolution were obtained, showing low detection limits around 1 mu g/L (e.g. Pt- species) and very high resolution. Typical analysis times were below 2 2 min. Quality control aspects concerned species stability during the analytical procedure and stability of electrical current during nebuli zation. A possible interfering suction flow was estimated and found to be negligible.