Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) systems for the separation of mixtures of charged and uncharged compounds

The migration behaviour of charged and uncharged analytes in MEKC was investigated under different conditions. Effective mobilities – electrophoretic mobilities under the influence of the negatively charged micelles – of cations, anions and neutrals were measured at neutral, basic and acidic pH values (7.5, 11 and 2.2) using background electrolytes containing different sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentrations (0-90 mM) and acetonitrile proportions (0-75 %, v/v). The SDS concentration and acetonitrile proportion were found to have a tremendous effect on the effective mobilities and the migration order of the tested compounds. Although the SDS micelles interact more strongly with neutrals and cations, the migration of anionic compounds is also affected by the SDS concentration, indicating that hydrophobic interactions can occur between the micelles and these compounds. Since cationic, anionic and neutral solutes exhibit rather different migration behaviours, it is possible to considerably enhance the separation selectivity by properly adjusting the SDS concentration and the acetonitrile proportion in the background electrolyte. These observations confirm the interest of using MEKC not only for the separation of neutral substances but also for the analysis of mixtures of charged compounds