Theory for migration of ions in capillary electrochromatography

The fundamental migration theories for chromatography and electrophoresis are both based on a solution of the mass balance equation. The corresponding analysis for an electrochromatographic system has previously been published and is analysed in more detail in this paper. It is shown that the resulting equation, Eq. (8) in this paper, is in agreement with both electrophoretic and chromatographic theories and that when these migration modes are mixed a complicated migration behaviour emerge. These complications arise, if the comparison is done with electrophoretic theory, because the presence of the stationary phase creates a number of new restrictions on the system (electroneutrality on the stationary phase and simultaneous equilibrium for all components between the eluent and stationary phase). From a mathematical point of view, these restrictions make it difficult for the system to satisfy the coherence condition and this in turn may lead to an anomalous behaviour. To minimise the possibility for a complicated behaviour it is advisable to avoid too much mixing of the two migration mechanisms and/or to match the mobilities of the ionic components in the eluent phase with the mobility of the analyte ion.