Capillary zone electrophoresis with pre-column NDA derivatization and amperometric detection for the analysis of four aliphatic diamines

A method was developed for the analysis of four aliphatic diamines by capillary zone electrophoresis using pre-column derivatization with naphthalene-2,3dicarboxaldehyde (NDA)/CN and amperometric detection. The pre-column derivatization reaction conditions including the molar ratio of NDA to amines, the cyanide concentration, the pH value of derivatization buffer, and the reaction time, were investigated. The separation of four derivatives of aliphatic diamines has been optimized by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) using end-column amperometric detection with a carbon fiber microelectrode, at a constant potential of 0.7 V versus SCE. The optimum conditions for the separation were 10 mM Tris–H3PO4 (pH 4.0) for the running buffer solution, 15 kV for the separation voltage. The detection limits for diaminopropane, putrescine, cadaverine, diaminohexane were 6.7×10^-8, 5.1×10^-8, 1.9×10^-7 and 3.8×10^-7 M, respectively (S/N=3). The proposed method was applied to the determination of aliphatic diamines in a lake water sample by the standard addition method. The recovery of these amines in water was 89.9–107%.