Application of capillary zone electrophoresis for the analysis of low molecular weight organic acids in environmental samples

The applicability of a recently developed capillary zone electrophoretic (CZE) method for the determination of low molecular weight (LMW) organic acids in water was tested on five types of environmental samples (rainwater, water extract from peat, and soil water from two polluted sites). A full baseline resolved separation of fourteen commonly found LMW carboxylic acids in natural waters (malonic, oxalic, fumaric, maleic, formic, succinic, tartaric, glutaric, adipic, acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric and citric acids), was achieved within eight minutes. The limits of detection (2 x noise) were in the ranges 90-200 mug/l and 0.5 - 5 mug/l for hydrodynamic and electrokinetic injection, respectively. Two different CZE systems, a Waters Quanta 4000 and a Hewlett Packard HP (CE)-C-3D system, were used and their performance compared.