Sample stacking for the analysis of eight penicillin antibiotics by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

We studied the use of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography for separating eight penicillins. The method consists of (i) an electrophoretic separation based on micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography, which uses sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactant; (ii) a sample stacking technique called reverse electrode polarity stacking mode (REPSM); and (iii) direct UV detection. The background electrolyte that gave complete separation contained 20 mM sodium borate buffer and 60 mM SDS. The sensitivity of the method was improved by an enrichment step that used on-column stacking. The limits of detection were at the microg.L(-1) level for the penicillins and did not detract from the peak resolution.