title: Nitrate and Nitrite Determination in Gunshot Residue Samples by Capillary Electrophoresis in Acidic Run Buffer.
abstract: Simultaneous determination of nitrate and nitrite in gunshot residue has been conducted by capillary electrophoresis using an acidic run buffer (pH 3.5). In previously developed capillary electrophoretic methods, alkaline pH separation buffers were used where nitrite and nitrate possess similar electrophoretic mobility. In this study, the electroosmotic flow has been reversed by using low pH running buffer without any additives. As a result of reversing the electroosmotic flow, very fast analysis has been actualized, well-defined and separated ion peaks emerge in less than 4 min. Besides, the limit of detection was improved by employing large volume sample stacking. Limit of detection values were 6.7 and 4.3 μM for nitrate and nitrite, respectively. In traditional procedure, mechanical agitation is employed for extraction, while in this work the extraction efficiency of ultrasound mixing for 30 min was found sufficient. The proposed method was successfully applied to authentic gunshot residue samples.
authors.affiliation: Samsun Criminal Police Laboratory, Istasyon Mah Saadet Cad No:119 İlkadım, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özge Ö
authors.initials: ÖÖ
authors.lastname: Erol
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Technology Programmes, Technical Vocational School of Higher Education, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Terme, Samsun, 55600, Turkey.
authors.forename: Behice Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Erdoğan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Kurupelit, Samsun, 55139, Turkey.
authors.forename: Atiye N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Onar
keywords: electroosmotic flow reversal; forensic analysis; forensic science; gunshot residue; large volume sample stacking; swab samples