Analytical potentialities of a chip-based CE in determination of ammonium in wastewaters were investigated. CZE with the electric field and/or ITP sample stacking was performed on a column-coupling (CC) chip with integrated conductivity detectors. Acetate background electrolytes (pH ∼3) including 18-crown-6-ether (18-crown-6) and tartaric acid were developed to reach rapid (in 7-8 min) CZE and ITP-CZE resolutions of ammonium from other cations (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium) present in wastewater samples. Under preferred working conditions (suppressed hydrodynamic flow (HDF) and EOF on the column-coupling chip), both the employed methods did provide very good repeatabilities of the migration (RSD of 0.2-0.8% for the migration time) and quantitative (RSD of 0.3-4.9% for the peak area) parameters in the model and wastewater samples. Using a 900-nL sample injection volume, LOD for ammonium were obtained at 20 and 40 μg/L concentrations in CZE and ITP-CZE separations, respectively. Very good agreements of the CZE and ITP-CZE determinations of ammonium in six untreated wastewater samples (only filtration and dilution) with the results obtained by a reference spectrometric method indicate a very good accuracy of both the CE methods presented.

Using the Langmuir probe method we evaluated the electron energy distribution (EED) in plasma produced in a Na + He mixture by a laser pulse tuned to the 3S-3P transition. We proposed a new method of retrieving the EED from the probe characteristics at high gas pressures, when the free path of the electrons is less than the probe radius, i.e. in the range of 2-100 Torr. The method consists of using a combination of the first and second derivatives of the electron current. The systematic error that usually occurs when the EED is treated by means of traditional Langmuir and diffusion probes was reduced by two to three times when treated this way. Two phase temporal evolution of the electron distribution was observed. Initially the shape of the EED was close to the Maxwellian function. Its temperature corresponded to the effective excitation temperature, which can characterize the total population of excited sodium atoms. When the concentration of excited atoms decreased, one observed a transformation of the EED function. At the second phase it became well Maxwellized only in the low energy region. The high energy part of the EED had a non-equilibrium shape. This was caused by relaxation of fast electrons produced by super-elastic collisions with residual excited atoms.

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Adsorption processes on a PMMA chip linked with CZE separations of a group of 13 aliphatic and aromatic mono- and di-amines were studied. Due to the lack of chromophores within aliphatic amines, contact conductivity detection implemented directly onto the chip was used for monitoring of cationic CZE separations. To prevent an adsorption of studied amines to the chip channels, the surface of PMMA chip was modified by dynamic coating. Different surface modifiers, such as aliphatic oligoamines (diethylenetriamine and triethylenetetramine), were added to the BGE solutions filling the chip channels. The effect of various concentrations of surface modifiers on peak profiles and separation parameters of amines was monitored. Of these, mainly, aliphatic di-amines and aromatic mono-amines adversely affected the CZE resolution of a whole group of analytes by their strong adsorption to the chip channels. A propionate BGE with pH 3.2 containing 100 μM triethylenetetramine and 25 mM 18-crown-6-ether was found suitable for CZE resolution of 12 from a total of 13 amines studied. Simple dynamic modification of the surface of PMMA chip enabled fast (analysis time lasted 9 min), sensitive (sub-μM LODs reached) and reproducible (1-3% RSD of the peak areas) CZE analysis of the aliphatic and aromatic amines.

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