Comparison of contactless conductivity detection and direct UV detection sensitivity for electrophoretic determination of N-acetylaminosaccharides

is work deals with development and optimization of a method for separation and detection of N- acetylglucosamine and its dimer and trimer using capillary zone electrophoresis with contactless conductiv- ity detection. Separation and detection of these substances is possible if sodium hydroxide is used as back- ground electrolyte. Usage of another electrolyte such as disodium phosphate leads to unacceptable baseline noise level. Optimal conditions of this method are a background electrolyte concentration of 40 mmol dm−3 and voltage of 15 kV. e method is very sensitive to background electrolyte pH, used background electrolyte also causes rapid degradation of the inner capillary wall which is why this method has proven difficult to cali- brate properly. e developed method was compared to an already existing method which uses UV detection. e existing method has lower limits of detection and quantification and is less sensitive to working condi- tions. Limits of detection and quantification of the developed method are 34 µmol dm−3 and 104 µmol dm−3 respectively. Limits of detection and quantification of the method based on UV detection are 7 µmol dm−3 and 21 µmol dm−3 respectively. Limits of quantification are that of the analyte whose detection was the least sensitive which was the dimer in both..