CAPILLARY GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS FOR CHARACT ERIZATION OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC-SUBSTANCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL WATERS

A high-performance gel electrophoresis for organic substances in envir onmental water using a polymer-based sieving media was investigated as an alternative separation method for a conventional high-performance gel-permeation chromatography. Effective separation conditions were in vestigated, as shown in the following. A sample was injected with elec tromigration (15 kV, 60 s), separated in a polyethyleneglycol coating capillary (DB-WAX; 0.1 mm i.d. x 40cm, effective length 32.5 cm) fille d with a 0.1 M Tris-CHES buffer solution containing 0.5 % methylcellul ose with an applied voltage of 15 kV and detected selectively at 254 n m using a mercury lamp. We found descrimination of humic substances, s uch as a humic acid and fluvic acid, from the peak pattern of an elect ropherogram. We also obtained a several-peak separation of concentrate d lake water samples within 6 min, and could estimate the main peak as signment using the above method.