Simultaneous determination of DTPA, EDTA, and NTA by capillary electrophoresis after complexation with copper.

We present a method for simultaneous determination of the aminopolycarboxylic acids DTPA, EDTA and NTA in dishwashing detergents, paper mill waters, and natural waters by capillary electrophoresis (CE). The complexing agents were examined as their copper(II) complexes and separated by conventional CE with reversed polarity of the applied voltage. The optimum separation conditions were established by varying the pH and phosphate and tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) concentrations in the run buffer. The separations were carried out in a fused-silica capillary (61 cmx75 microm i.d.) filled with phosphate buffer (80 mmol L(-1), TTAB concentration 0.5 mmol L(-1), pH 7.1, voltage -20 kV) using direct UV detection at 191 and 254 nm. With this CE method all the peaks in the electropherograms were properly separated, the calibration plots gave good correlation coefficients and all three complexing agents could be detected in less than 4 min. Linear calibration plots were obtained for CuDTPA, CuEDTA and CuNTA; limits of detection were 0.03 mmol L(-1) for all complexing agents and recoveries for all tested samples were within the range 104+/-7%. Results obtained from dishwashing detergent samples were found to be reliable and comparable with those from HPLC (R2=0.989) and UV-Vis (R(2)=0.985) methods.