Capillary electrophoresis-chemiluminescence determination of norfloxacin and prulifloxacin.

A capillary electrophoresis (CE)-chemiluminescence (CL) method for determining norfloxacin (NFLX) and prulifloxacin (PFLX) was developed based on the enhanced CL intensity of the cerium(IV)-sulfite-fluoroquinolone (FQ) reaction sensitized by terbium(III). The separation was conducted in buffer composed of 20 mM sodium citrate, 4 mM citric acid and 10 mM sodium sulfite at pH 6.1. The CL reagent solution consisted of 2 mM cerium(IV), 4 mM terbium(III) and 1.1 mM hydrochloric acid. NFLX and PFLX were baseline separated within 11 min with detection limits (S/N=3) of 0.057 and 0.084 microg mL(-1), respectively. The maximum intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) of migration time of the analytes were less than 4.0% and 4.2%, respectively. The proposed method was applied to detect NFLX and PFLX in fortified urine sample and the results were comparable to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-UV method. Moreover, the high selectivity of the CL detection and the high-separation efficiency of CE render the method the potential of quick analyzing fluoroquinolones in real complex matrix.