Electrokinetic supercharging for on-line preconcentration of seven non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in water samples

The development of new sensitive methods for the analysis of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in water samples is of great importance. In this work, seven NSAIDs were separated within 9 min using 15 mM sodium tetraborate (pH 9.2) containing 0.1% (w/v) hexadimethrine bromide (HDMB) and 10% (v/v) methanol. Field-amplified sample injection (FASI) was examined and found to improve the detection limits by 200-fold providing detection limits of 0.6–2.0 μg/L, but these are insufficient for the determination of NSAIDs as environmental pollutants in water samples. To improve the sensitivity further, electrokinetic supercharging (EKS) was examined. The optimum EKS method involved hydrodynamic injection leading electrolyte (100 mM NaCl, 30 s, 50 mbar), electrokinetic injection of the sample (200 s, −10 kV) and finally injection of the terminating electrolyte (100 mM 2-(cyclohexylamino) ethanesulphonic acid, CHES, 40 s, 50 mbar). With this method, the sensitivity was improved by 2400-fold giving detection limits of 50–180 ng/L. The developed method was validated and then applied to the analysis of wastewater samples from a local sewage treatment plant. The detection limits were found to increase by approximately 10-fold, however, this is still lower than levels previously found in wastewater samples from European and Mediterranean cities. The proposed method has the advantage of simplicity and achieving sensitivity through high-preconcentration power without the use of off-line chromatographic sample cleanup.