Capillary electrophoresis screening of poisonous anions extracted from biological samples

A method was developed for screening human biological samples for poisonous anions using capillary electrophoresis (CE) employing indirect UV detection. The run buffer consisted of 2.25 mM pyromellitic acid, 1.6 mM triethanolamine, 0.75 mM hexamethonium hydroxide and 6.5 mM NaOH at pH 7.7. Biological samples were pretreated using solid phase extraction. The method was applied to the analysis of human blood, plasma, urine, and intestinal contents. Twenty-nine different anions were detectable at aqueous concentrations of 1 part per million (ppm) with a typical analysis time less than 20 min. Intraday migration time R.S.D. and peak area R.S.D. for blood samples were less than 1.1% and 6.3%, respectively. Interday migration time R.S.D. for plasma samples ranged from 7.5% to 10.4%. The new method produced efficient separations of various target anions extracted from complex biological matrices.