Sensitivity enhancement in direct coupling of supported liquid membrane extractions to capillary electrophoresis by means of transient isotachophoresis and large electrokinetic injections.

Enhanced sensitivity for determination of basic drugs in body fluids was achieved by in-line coupling of extraction across supported liquid membrane (SLM) to large electrokinetic injection and transient isotachophoresis-capillary zone electrophoresis (tITP-CZE) in commercial CZE instrument. Twelve cm long tITP plug of 300mM ammonium acetate was formed in the separation capillary just before the electrokinetic injection of acceptor solution containing nortriptyline, haloperidol and loperamide extracted across the SLM. The tITP plug ensured efficient stacking and preconcentration of the injected basic drugs due to the tITP action of ammonium and the drugs were then separated by CZE using 5.2M acetic acid as background electrolyte. No interferences were observed from highly-abundant body fluid species (NaCl and human serum albumin) due to the excellent clean-up properties of SLMs and analytical sensitivity increased up to 340 times compared to SLM extractions coupled in-line to CZE with standard hydrodynamic injections. The SLM-tITP-CZE method was characterized by good repeatability (RSDs of peak areas below 7.8%), linearity over two orders of magnitude (r(2) better than 0.994) and limits of detection (defined as 3×S/N) between 3 and 45μg/L. Interfacing of SLM extractions to CZE instrumentation was achieved by low-cost, disposable micro-extraction devices, which can be routinely prepared in every analytical laboratory. These devices eliminated sample carry-over, minimized the need for manual sample handling and ensured fully automated determination (including extraction, injection, preconcentration and separation) of the three basic drugs in 20μL of untreated body fluids.