Ion-interaction high-performance liquid chromatography and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography: two complementary techniques for the separation of aromatic sulfonated compounds

Aromatic sulfonates and their amino and/or hydroxyl derivatives are widespread environmental pollutants. Since they are commonly present as complex mixtures, with the presence of many isomers, their separation is still a critical analytical step. Due to the lack of a standard reference method, recommendations are made to always use two independent methods in order to compare and confirm the results. Due to the ionic nature of these compounds ion-interaction HPLC and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography were chosen to solve this separative problem. With the use of both techniques the separation of 22 aromatic sulfonates was optimized, and the effect of several experimental parameters evaluated. The results obtained were discussed in terms of resolution, sensitivity and precision of the methods. An industrial effluent was analyzed employing the proposed procedures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.