Separation of open-cage fullerenes using nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis

• Published in: Journal of Chromatography A Vol. 1217; no. 26; pp. 4471 - 4475
• Main Authors: Su, Hsiu-Li, Kao, Wan-Chun, Lee, Cheng-yu, Chuang, Shih-Ching, Hsieh, You-Zung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 25.06.2010; Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Capillarity; Chemistry; Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography; Electrolytes; Electrophoresis; Electrophoresis, Capillary - instrumentation; Electrophoresis, Capillary - methods; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes; Fullerenes - chemistry; Fullerenes - isolation & purification; Migration; Molecular Structure; Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis; Open-cage fullerene; Other chromatographic methods; Reproducibility; Separation; Standard deviation; Trifluoroacetic acid; Trifluoroacetic acid; Open-cage fullerene; Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis; Peak resolution; Chemical analysis; Phase composition; Capillary electrophoresis; Number of theoretical plates; Mobile phase; Ultraviolet detector; Plate efficiency; Electrophoretic mobility; Fullerenes; Diode array; Non aqueous solvent; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0021-9673; 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2010.02.085

In this study, nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) was used to separate three open-cage fullerenes. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was used as the nonaqueous background electrolyte to change the analytes’ mobilities. The selectivity and separation efficiency were critically affected by the nature of the buffer system, the choice of organic solvent, and the concentrations of TFA and sodium acetate (NaOAc) in the background electrolyte. The optimized separation occurred using 200 mM TFA/20 mM NaOAc in MeOH/acetonitrile (10:90, v/v), providing highly efficient baseline separation of the open-cage fullerenes within 5 min. The migration time repeatability for the three analytes was less than 1% (relative standard deviation). Thus, NACE is a rapid, useful alternative to high-performance liquid chromatography for the separation of open-cage fullerenes.