Separation and Detection of Nitrophenols at Capillary Electrophoresis Microchips with Amperometric Detection

A miniaturized analytical system for the separation and amperometric detection of toxic nitrophenols, based on the coupling of a micromachined capillary electrophoresis (CE) chip with a glassy carbon detector is described. This microsystem enables a rapid (120 s/sample) simultaneous determination of five priority nitrophenolic pollutants (2‐nitrophenol, 3‐nitrophenol, 4‐nitrophenol, 2,4‐dinitrophenol, and 2‐methyl‐4,6‐dinitrophenol). These compounds can be detected down to the 1×10 −5  M level using a 15 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.2 (containing 1.3 mM α‐cyclodextrin) as running solution on 77 mm long microchannel by applying a separation voltage of 3000 V and a negative potential of −0.7 V (vs. Ag /AgCl wire). Applicability to ground water samples was demonstrated.