A. Hilmi et al., APPLICABILITY OF CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS WITH AMPEROMETRIC DETECTION TO STUDY DEGRADATION OF CHLOROPHENOLS IN CONTAMINATED SOIL, Environmental science & technology, 31(6), 1997, pp. 1794-1800
Details are presented for assembling an amperometric detector compatib
le with commercial capillary electrophoresis (CE) instruments. The det
ector assembled with a gold electrode achieves a sufficient sensitivit
y in analyzing liquid extracts to enable determination of pentachlorop
henol (PCP) in soils at 35 mg/kg (PCP/soil). The CE system equipped wi
th amperometric detection is used to study the oxidation of chlorophen
ols with eerie sulfate. The selected chlorophenols are completely oxid
ized by eerie sulfate in 5 min and the eerie sulfate can be recovered
and reused. The same CE system is also applied for monitoring the phot
odegradation of PCP in contaminated soil, in the presence of titanium
dioxide. Complete degradation of PCP, with no trace of electroactive p
roducts, is achieved in 7 h. This study demonstrates that capillary el
ectrophoresis can be an important technique for monitoring processes o
f degradation and bioremediation.