Rapid separation and sensitive determination of banned aromatic amines with plastic microchip electrophoresis

Rapid analysis of trace amount of aromatic amines in environmental samples and daily necessities has attracted considerable attentions because some of them are strongly toxic and carcinogenic. In this study, fast and efficient electrophoretic separation and sensitive determination of 5 banned aromatic amines were explored for practical analysis using disposable plastic microchips combined with a low-cost laser-induced fluorescence detector. The effect of running buffer and its additive was systematically investigated. Under the selected condition, 5 fluorescein isothiocyanate labeled aromatic amines could be baseline separated within 90   s by using a 10   mmol/L borate buffer containing 2% (w/v) hydroxypropyl cellulose. Calibration curves of peak areas vs. concentrations were linear up to 40 or 120   μmol/L for different analytes and limits of detection were in a range of 1–3   nmol/L. Theoretical plate numbers of 6.8–8.5   ×   10 5 /m were readily achieved. The method exhibited good repeatability, relative standard deviations ( n   =   5) of peak areas and migration times were no more than 4.6% and 0.9%, respectively. The established method was successfully applied in the quantitative analysis of these banned aromatic amines in real samples of waste water and textile, recoveries of added standards were 85–110%.