Analysis of neutral surfactants by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis using an electroosmotic flow reversal

The separation of KM 20, that is in fact a mixture of non-ionic surfactants, was carried out by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis. This complex mixture resulting from the condensation of ethylene oxide with fatty alcohols does not have chromophoric moieties. So, we analysed it after derivatization by means of 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl chloride. The proposed approach is based both on the formation of complexes with alkaline or ammonium cations in methanol and on the utilisation of a positively charged capillary. From a comparative study on the capillary treatment procedure, we used hexadimethrine bromide as electroosmotic flow reverser in order to obtain both repeatable analyses and good resolutions of the largest KM 20 oligomers. Then, among the five cations used to form complexes with KM 20, we pointed out that ammonium cation led to the best resolutions. Moreover, we evidenced that the counter-ion of this cation had a great influence on resolution because it modified the magnitude of electroosmotic flow. Ion pair formation that is more or less strong between ammonium and its counter-ion was involved in this variation of electroosmotic flow. So, we calculated the association constants for various ammonium salts in methanol. Then, using ammonium chloride as background electrolyte, we optimised the concentration of this salt, in methanol, in order to reach the optimal separation of KM 20 oligomers. Thus, a baseline separation was obtained by using 6 x 10(-2) mol/L NH4Cl as running electrolyte. In these conditions, we separated, in about 30 min, more than 30 oligomers of KM 20. The distribution of these oligomers that was determined from the optimal separation, appeared consistent with that obtained from HPLC analyses. Indeed, we determined that the mean ethoxylation number was equal to 18 while its real value is equal to 20.