Separation of hydroxybenzoic acid isomers by capillary zone electrophoresis

Capillary zone electrophoresis is a highly efficient analytical technique that has been shown to be particularly useful for the analysis of isomers. Using a cathodic injection and anodic detection scheme, ortho-, meta- and para-hydroxybenzoic acids were separated in a fused-silica capillary column with a phosphate buffer at pH 10.3 (25.0 mmol/l phosphate + 0.20 mmol/l cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) + 10%(v/v) 1-propanol with an applied voltage of 10 KV followed by direct UV detection. The use of CTAB as electroosmotic flow modifier allows the rapid separation of the three isomers by reversing the direction of electro-osmotic flow. The influence of pH, CTAB concentration and organic solvents on the migration behaviour of the solutes were also studied.