On-line focusing of 5-hydroxy-tryptamine type 3 receptor antagonists via the combination of field-enhanced sample injection and dynamic pH junction in capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection

In the present work, an on-line dual focusing technique based on field-enhance sample injection (FASI) and dynamic pH junction (DypH) was developed for the analysis of two 5-hydroxy-tryptamine type 3 receptor (5-HT3) antagonists ondansetron (Ond) and tropisetron (Tro) by capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection (CE-AD) system. By preparing the sample in a lower conductivity (FASI condition) and lower pH value (DypH condition) matrix relative to the background electrolyte (BGE) solution, a simple and effective dual focusing approach, FASI-DypH was achieved. In this stacking mode, a large amount of analytes could be electrokinetically injected into the capillary and stacked at the boundary of the sample and the BGE zone as a result of deprotonation and decrease in the electric field. Effects of separation, detection and FASI-DypH focusing conditions were investigated in detail. Under the optimum conditions, good separation for Ond and Tro was achieved within 8 min. In comparison with the conventional CE-AD analysis method, the present dual focusing technique enabled the enhancement factors in terms of peak heights to reach 357-fold and 345-fold for Ond and Tro, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) (S/N = 3) for Ond and Tro were 2 nM and 5 nM, respectively. The intraday and interday repeatabilities (RSDs) were less than 4.5% and 2.9% for peak height and migration time, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the analysis of Ond and Tro in human urine sample.