Sensitized and quenched phosphorescence as a detection mode in capillary electrophoresis

The potential of sensitized and quenched phosphorescence of biacetyl as an optical detection mode in capillary electrophoresis (CE), complementary to absorption and fluorescence detection, was explored. From 24 naphthalenesulfonates (NS) that were studied in batch experiments, 5 NS were used as test compounds in CE. The technique is based on the intense phosphorescence emission of biacetyl (present as a constituent of the CE buffer) at room temperature in deoxygenated liquid solutions. A simple device, based on purging with nitrogen gas, was developed to meet this deoxygenation requirement in CE. A standard liquid chromatography luminescence detector, provided with a pulsed xenon light source, was used for detection. In view of the phosphoresence lifetime of biacetyl (70 μs under present solution conditions), the background caused by scattered excitation light could be readily suppressed by using a delay time for detection. Both phosphorescence modes can be applied at a 0.02 M biacetyl concentration, though in the quenched mode a biacetyl concentration of 0.05 M yields better results. From the five test analytes considered, three show sensitized phosphorescence and two dynamically quenched phosphorescence. Though various experimental parameters still have to be optimized further, the results are quite encouraging:  under stacking conditions (pt = 768 mbar·s), detection limits ranged from 5 × 10(-)(8) to 4 × 10(-)(7) M.