Separation of derivatized carbohydrates by capillary zone electrophoresis

A simple and rapid method was developed for the separation of derivatized carbohydrates using 1-naphthyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone (NMP) as derivatization reagent by capillary zone electrophoresis. The detection was performed with diode array at 254 nm. A 58.5 cm x 50 mu m i.d. ( 50 cm effective length) untreated fused-silica capillary was used. To optimize the conditions, the background electrolyte concentration, buffer pH, column temperature, voltage and other factors were studied. It was found that the buffer concentration and pH value have a greater impact on the separation, but the influences of temperature, voltage and additives on resolution were not obvious. On the basis of the optimization, the optimum conditions are as follows: 55 mmol/L borate buffer (pH 9.46), voltage 22 kV, column temperature at 20 degrees C and detection at 254 nm. The samples were atmospherically introduced with an injection time of 10 s. The results indicate that 9 NMP-derivatized carbohydrates achieve baseline resolution within 18 min under the proposed conditions. The Tangufican Nitratia sample was also analyzed under the optimum conditions.