Enantiomeric separation of organophosphorus pesticides by capillary electrophoresis

The separation of the enantiomers of a group of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) has been investigated by electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) using different anionic cyclodextrins as chiral selectors. The use of a 25 mM Tris buffer (pH 7.0), 20 mM in CM-β-CD together with an applied voltage of 24 kV and a temperature of 25 °C enabled the individual enantiomeric separation of malathion and phenthoate each one into its two enantiomers, the partial separation of the enantiomers of phenamiphos and the separation of three of the four enantiomers of isomalathion. Since naled is very reactive in aqueous solutions, its enantiomeric separation achieved in about 8 min in 25 mM borate buffer at pH 9 with 10 mM CM-β-CD resulted in the observation of a broad peak due to degradation products. A preconcentration step by disk solid-phase extraction was studied and used together with the chiral EKC method developed for the enantiomeric separation of malathion in order to determine this pesticide in tap water samples spiked at the μg mL−1 level. Finally, the precision and recovery of the method was established.