A new capillary electrophoresis end-column amperometric detection system without the need for capillary/electrode alignment.

A self-aligning end-column amperometric detection system for capillary electrophoresis was constructed. In this system, the electrode and capillary were exchanged easily and the capillary/electrode alignment procedure is not required. Gold, gold/mercury amalgam, copper and carbon fiber could be used as the working electrode. The principle is in the use of two disk holders with the capillary and the electrode in the center, so that by inserting the disk holders into a groove in the working electrode port, the capillary and the electrode are automatically aligned and the distance between the capillary and the electrode is assured at 0.24 mm. The relative standard deviation obtained using five different gold/mercury amalgam microdisk electrodes for determination of cysteine was 1.5% for the migration time and 3.3% for the electrophoretic peak current. The simple and convenient system was attractive for the routine analysis by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection. The system was applied to the determination of promethazine hydrochloride in human serum.