Success and failure with phthalate buffers in capillary tone electrophoresis

Phthalate buffers are currently used in capillary electrophoresis as robust electrolyte systems for indirect detection. This contribution demonstrates that these buffers show regularly not only successful regions of mobilitie s of analytes (sample window) but also regions of failure where the migrati on of analytes is strongly deteriorated due to the presence of a system zon e. System zones in phthalate buffers may be easily detected by UV detection and manifest themselves as peaks or dips. Peak shape diagrams are advantag eously used for the prediction of the migration behavior of system zones in phthalate background electrolyte (BGE) systems at various pH. It is shown that the mobility of the system zone varies strongly with pH, is practicall y zero at pH values below 4 and above 7, and shows a maximum at pH 5. Thus, the system peak may coincide either with the peaks of various analytes or with the electroosmotic flow (EOF) peak. Experiments are given showing the effects of such coincidences as, e.g., zigzag detection patterns, double EO F peaks, and/or unusually broad peaks/dips. The message of this contributio n is to show how to understand the electrophoretic properties of phthalate BGEs that, regardless of possible failure regions, may be successfully used in the analytical practice of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE).