Electromembrane extraction (EME) and CE with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE-C(4) D) was applied to rapid and sensitive determination of perchlorate in drinking water and environmental samples. Porous polypropylene hollow fiber impregnated with 1-heptanol acted as a supported liquid membrane (SLM) and perchlorate was transported and preconcentrated in the fiber lumen on application of electric field. High selectivity of perchlorate determination and its baseline separation from major inorganic anions was achieved in CE-C(4) D using background electrolyte solution consisting of 7.5 mM L-histidine and 40 mM acetic acid at pH 4.1. The analytical method showed excellent parameters in terms of reproducibility; RSD values for migration times and peak areas at a spiked concentration of 15 μg/L of perchlorate (US EPA recommended limit for drinking water) were below 0.2 and 8.7%, respectively, in all examined water samples. Linear calibration curves were obtained for perchlorate in the concentration range 1-100 μg/L (r(2) ≥0.999) with limits of detection at 1 μg/L for tap water and at 0.25-0.35 μg/L for environmental and bottled potable water samples. Recoveries at 15 μg/L of perchlorate were between 95.9 and 106.7% with minimum and maximum recovery values for snow and bottled potable water samples, respectively.

A simple and sensitive method for quantifying perchlorate in biological samples using CE and capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection was developed. An online combination of a supported liquid membrane, an inert polypropylene membrane impregnated with 1-hexanol, and electrokinetic injection of perchlorate across the supported liquid membrane directly into the separation capillary reduced the need for laborious sample pretreatment procedures, resulting in a cheap and rapid method with low LODs capability. Baseline separation of perchlorate and other anions in biological samples was achieved in background electrolyte solution consisting of 15 mM nicotinic acid and 1 mM 3-(N,N-dimethylmyristylammonio)propanesulfonate at pH 3.3. The analytical method showed excellent parameters in terms of reproducibility; RSD values for peak areas and corrected migration times at a spiked concentration of 100 μg/L of perchlorate were below 10 and 0.4%, respectively. Linear calibration curves were obtained for perchlorate in the concentration range 10-1000 μg/L (r(2) >0.999) with LODs between 2 and 5 μg/L for human urine, breast milk, serum, cow's milk, and red wine. Recoveries at 25 μg/L of perchlorate were between 97 and 106% for all biological samples. The low LODs rivaling those of presently used analytical methods support the use of this method for quantification of perchlorate in biological samples in the future.

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Micro-electrodialysis (μED) and CE were combined for rapid pretreatment and subsequent determination of inorganic cations in biological samples. Combination of μED with CE greatly improved the analytical performance of the latter as the adsorption of high molecular weight compounds present in real samples on the inner capillary wall was eliminated. Fifty microliter of 80-fold diluted human body fluids such as plasma, serum and whole blood was used in the donor compartment of the μED system requiring less than 1 μL of the original body fluid per analysis. Inorganic cations that migrated through a cellulose acetate dialysis membrane with molecular weight cut-off value of 500 Da were collected in the acceptor solution and were then analyzed using CE-C⁴D. Baseline separation of inorganic cations was achieved in a BGE solution consisting of 12.5 mM maleic acid, 15 mM L-arginine and 3 mM 18-crown-6 at pH 5.5. Repeatability of the CE-C⁴D method was better than 0.5% and 2.5% for migration times and peak areas, respectively; limits of detection of all inorganic cations in the presence of 2 mM excess of Na(+) were around 1 μM and calibration curves were linear with correlation coefficients better than 0.998. Repeatability of the sample pretreatment procedure was calculated for six independent electrodialysis runs of artificial and real samples and was better than 11.8%. Recovery values between 96.3 and 110% were achieved for optimized electrodialysis conditions of standard solutions and real samples; lifetime of the dialysis membranes for pretreatment of real samples was estimated to 100 runs.

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