Electrophoretic mobilities of cationic analytes in non-aqueous methanol, acetonitrile and their mixtures: Influence of ionic strength and ion-pair formation

Abstract

The mobilities of cationic analytes in organic solvents and water are compared, and the reasons for differences in the mobilities are discussed in detail. Actual mobilities (at background electrolyte concentration 10 mmol/l) of anilinium ions were determined by capillary zone electrophoresis in water, methanol, acetonitrile and mixtures of methanol and acetonitrile (in volume ratios 1:1, 1:3 and 3:1). The actual mobilities correlated with the viscosity of the organic solvent: the products of actual mobility and viscosity were constant within 7%. However, these products were significantly larger in water. Larger products of mobility and viscosity in water were also found for unsubstituted anilinium when the absolute mobility (at zero ionic strength) was taken into consideration. Thus, ion–solvent interactions must be responsible for the seemingly high mobility in water compared with that in organic solvents. This finding can be explained by the effect of the ion on the water structure. Based on equilibrium constant for ion-pair formation given in the literature, about 20% of the main background electrolyte constituent (tetrapropylammonium perchlorate) is associated at 10 mmol/l concentration in acetonitrile. Comparison of the plot of the measured mobilities of the analytes vs. the square root of the corrected ionic strength of the background electrolyte in acetonitrile with the prediction based on the Debye–Hückel–Onsager theory showed the measured mobilities deviate negatively from the theoretical line. This is apparently due to ion pairing, which takes place for the analytes as well.