Two-step pressure injection-assisted online enrichment of herbicides from foods with affinity micelle sweeping by micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

A novel online two-step pressure injection-assisted stacking preconcentration method, which involves sweeping and affinity micelles in micellar electrokinetic chromatography was developed to simultaneously measure various organic anions. The micellar solution was a mixed solution that contained 0.3 mM didodecyldimethylammonium bromide and 20 mM borax. After the micellar solution was injected for 60 s, the tested analytes prepared in 20 mM borax were introduced into the capillary for 150 s. The key experimental factors that influenced the separation and sensitivity were investigated and optimized, including the concentration and injection time of the micellar solution, the concentration of borax in the sample solution, the concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate and borax in the background electrolyte (BGE), the content of acetonitrile in the BGE and the injection time of the sample solution. Compared with typical injection methods, this method achieved sensitivity enhancement factors ranging from 85 to 97 under optimized conditions. Good linearity for matrix-matched calibration was established for all analytes with R values of 0.9986-0.9996. The intraday (n = 6) and interday (n = 6) precisions of the method were less than 2.85% when expressed as relative standard deviations. When the method was applied to analyze rice and dried ginger samples, analyte recoveries ranged from 85.81% to 106.59%. Through sweeping and affinity micelles, stacking preconcentration method was successfully employed to analyze trace amounts of fenoprop and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid in rice and dried ginger samples.