Enhanced separation of antidepressant drugs using a polymerized nonionic surfactant as a transient capillary coating

The separation of seven structurally similar antidepressant drugs (amitriptyline, nortriptyline, imipramine, desipramine, protriptyline, doxepin, and nordoxepin) was achieved in under 15 min using a novel nonionic micelle polymer, poly(n-undecyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside) (PUG) by use of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Systematic studies with varying polymer concentration, pH, and percent organic modifier were conducted in order to find the optimum conditions for baseline separation of the seven tricyclic antidepressants. In addition, equations for capacity factor were used to estimate the extent of what was initially thought to be micelle analyte interaction. A series of calculations show that a modified CZE system (PUG-CZE) was the actual mode of separation. Thus, our study concluded that PUG functioned in a non-electrokinetic chromatography mode.