Determination of iron in real samples by high performance capillary electrophoresis in combination with thermal lensing

Abstract

Natural iron concentrations in real water samples have been determined by thermal lensing as a high performance capillary electrophoresis detector. 1,10-Phenanthroline was used as a chromogenic reagent, which forms a stable complex with Fe(II) but not with Fe (III). The interferences by other cations can be neglected by a combination of this photometric technique with high performance capillary electrophoresis. Laser induced thermal lens spectroscopy is demonstrated as a new technique for the measurement of small absorbances in the picoliter detection volume of a capillary. A limit of detection of 36 nmol/L with a signal to noise ratio of 7 : 1 was achieved using a 75 μm fused silica capillary.