Separation of aromatic sulfonate compounds by coelectroosmotic micellar electrokinetic chromatography

Coelectroosmotic micellar electrokinetic chromatography (coelectroosmotic MEKC) has been investigated for the separation of twelve aromatic sulfonate compounds. The advantage of this method is that it combines the efficient separation characteristic of MEKC and the short analysis time of the coelectroosmotic mode. MEKC was performed with either cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) or polyethylene glycol dodecyl ether (Brij 35) surfactants as pseudostationary phases and 2-propanol as organic modifier. The electroosmotic flow (EOF) was reversed by adding two types of EOF modifier, an alkylammoniun salt (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) or a cationic polyelectrolyte (hexadimetrine bromide, HDB). The surfactant concentration, applied voltage, and temperature were optimized, the influence of 2-propanol on the MEKC resolution of the compounds was studied. The effect of the osmotic modifier on the separation was also investigated.