The simultaneous determination of chloride, nitrate and sulphate by isotachophoresis using bromide as a leading ion

A new method has been devised to allow the determination of small inorganic anions using isotachophoresis. This method makes use of indium(III) as a counter ion to manipulate the effective mobilities of inorganic anion species by means of complexation reactions. This new procedure successfully allowed the simultaneous determination of nitrate, chloride and sulphate to be realised on a capillary scale instrument and in a chip-based separation device. The electrolyte system developed to allow the separation to be achieved employed a 10 mM bromide-based leading electrolyte containing 1.25 mM indium(III) at pH 3.15 and a terminating electrolyte of cyanoacetic acid.