DETERMINATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS BY CAPILLARY ZONE ELECTROPHORESIS USING INDIRECT UV DETECTION

Capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect UV detection was used for the determination of a series of alkylphosphonic acids. For this purpose, a few UV-absorbing background electrolytes were tested and phenylphosphonic acid, which has a mobility close to that of the analysed compounds, was shown to be the most suitable. The influence of several parameters such as concentration of the UV-absorbing background electrolyte and concentration of borate on both sensitivity and efficiency was investigated. An increase in the borate concentration produced an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio. Conversely, the sensitivity decreased with increasing concentration of the phenylphosphonic acid. The reproducibility of the method was verv satisfactory and limits of detection were less than 0.21 pmol injected.