Electrokinetic chromatography utilizing two pseudostationary phases providing ion-exchange and hydrophobic...

The electrokinetic chromatographic separation of a series of inorganic and organic anions was achieved by utilizing an electrolyte system comprising a cationic soluble polymer (poly(diallydimethylammonium chloride, PDDAC) and a neutral beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) as pseudostationary phases. The separation mechanism was a combination of electrophoresis, ion-exchange (IE) interactions with PDDAC, and hydrophobic interactions with beta-CD. The extent of each chromatographic interaction was independently variable, allowing for control of the separation selectivity of the system. IE interactions could be varied by changing either the PDDAC concentration or the concentration of a competing ion (e.g., chloride) in the BGE, while the hydrophobic interactions could be varied by changing the concentration of beta-CD. The separation system was very robust, with the reproducibility of the migration times being <0.7% RSD. A mathematical model that predicted the mobilities of analytes under varying experimental conditions was derived and was shown to give good correlation (r2 = 0.9804) between predicted and experimental migration times. Parameters derived from the model were in good agreement with the ion-exchange and hydrophobic characteristics of the analytes. The model was also applied successfully to the optimization of conditions for the separation of a mixture of analytes or for conditions under which particular analytes migrated in a desired order. That is, the opportunity to tune the separation selectivity has been demonstrated.