Nonaqueous and aqueous-organic media for the enantiomeric separations of neutral organophosphorus pesticides by CE.

The enantiomeric separation of some poorly water-soluble organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) has been investigated using nonaqueous solvent and aqueous-organic solvent systems. In this work, sodium cholate (SC) either with SDS or gamma-CD was used to achieve enantiomeric separations of four neutral and poorly water-soluble OPs, i.e., profenofos, prothiofos, sulprofos, and pyraclofos. Electrophoretic medium consisted of a mixture of methanol (MeOH) with ACN (4:1 v/v) or a mixture of MeOH with H(2)O and ACN (5:4:1 v/v/v). On one hand, NACE was applied for enantiomeric separation of pyraclofos using a large amount of chiral and achiral surfactants (SC and SDS). On the other hand, H(2)O was added to act as a solvent additive to increase the solubility of gamma-CD in the organic solvents such as MeOH and ACN, in which the solubility of gamma-CD was very low. The presence of H(2)O was found to be particularly useful for the enantiomeric separation of profenofos, prothiofos, and sulprofos. In this way, the range of application of the neutral CDs in CE has been extended. In addition, SC was used as the only electrolyte. The proposed method has been applied for the analysis of soil samples.