Determination of ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium in drinking waters by capillary zone electrophoresis on a column-coupling chip.

This work deals with simultaneous determination of ammonium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium in drinking waters by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) on a column-coupling (CC) chip with suppressed hydrodynamic and electroosmotic transports. CZE separations were carried out in a propionate background electrolyte at a low pH (3.2) containing 18-crown-6-ether (18-crown-6) to reach a complete resolution of the cations. In addition, triethylenetetramine (TETA) coated the inner wall surface of the chip channels. The concentration limits of detection (cLOD) for the studied cations ranged from 4.9 to 11.5 microg/l concentrations using a 900 nl volume of the sample injection channel. 93-106% recoveries of the cations in drinking waters indicate a good predisposition of the present method to provide accurate analytical results.