Analysis of synthetic humic substances for medical and environmental applications by capillary zone electrophoresis

Abstract

Capillary electrophoretic methods (CZE, CLEF) have been found to be useful tools for the analysis of the electrophoretic behaviour of anionic polyelectrolytes like humic substances. The humic substances give an homogeneous signal in CZE with a Gaussian distribution of the detection signals around an average electrophoretic mobility (AEM) corresponding to the charge density distribution of the humic substances governed by their molecular size and their acidities. Natural humic substances as well as phenolic polymerisates are only present as anions and the presented electrophoretic methods can be used as a tool for the rapid evaluation of their relative charge densities, an important parameter when studying their reactivity towards organic and metallic species.