title: Determination of nitrogen mustard degradation products in water samples using a portable capillary electrophoresis instrument.
abstract: In this work, a new purpose-made portable CE instrument with a contactless conductivity detector was used for the determination of degradation products of nitrogen mustards in different water samples. The capillary was coated with poly(1-vinylpyrrolidone-co-2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) to avoid analyte-wall interactions. The coating procedure was studied to obtain the best repeatability of the migration time of the analytes. Four different coating procedures were compared; flushing the capillary with the copolymer at 100 psi for 2 min at 60°C provided the best RSD values (<4%). The analytical method was also optimized. The use of 20 mM of MES adjusted to pH 6.0 with His as running buffer allowed a good baseline separation of the three analytes in different water samples without matrix interferences. The method permitted the detection of the three degradation products down to 5 μM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Multipurpose Building of Chemistry, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sáiz
authors.forename: Thanh Duc
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Ruiz
mesh_terms: D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008466:Mechlorethamine / Q000032:analysis*; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D011760:Pyrrolidinones / Q000737:chemistry; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids; D011760:Pyrrolidinones; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C547200:poly(1-vinylpyrrolidone-co-2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate); D008466:Mechlorethamine
keywords: Capillary coating; Chemical warfare agents; Nitrogen mustards degradation products; Portable capillary electrophoresis; Water analysis