A capillary electrophoretic system with an improved gas-phase chemiluminescence nitrogen detector

A new, rugged nebulizer interface was designed to couple a capillary electrophoretic system to a gas-phase nitrogen chemiluminescence detector. By hydraulically decoupling the separation capillary from the nebulizer of the gas-phase nitrogen chemiluminescence detector, the interface-related loss of separation efficiency could be limited to a mere 10%. The ozone reaction chamber of the gas-phase nitrogen chemiluminescence detector has been redesigned leading to a threefold improvement in detection sensitivity over the old design. In combination with a field-amplified sample stacking procedure, the new system was used to detect 0.25 ppm concentrations of UV chromophore-free aminoglycosides.