Nitrite Determination in Environmental Water Samples Using Microchip Electrophoresis Coupled with Amperometric Detection

Abstract

Nitrite is considered an important target analyte for environmental monitoring. In water resources, nitrite is the result of the nitrogen cycle and the leaching processes of pesticides based on nitrogenous compounds. A high concentration of nitrite can be associated with intoxication processes and metabolic disorders in humans. The present study describes the development of a portable analytical methodology based on microchip electrophoresis coupled with amperometric detection for the determination of nitrite in environmental water samples. Electrophoretic and detection conditions were optimized, and the best separations were achieved within 60 s by employing a mixture of 30 mmol L−1 lactic acid and 15 mmol L−1 histidine (pH = 3.8) as a running buffer applying 0.7 V to the working electrode (versus Pt) for amperometric measurements. The developed methodology revealed a satisfactory linear behavior in the concentration range between 20 and 80 μmolL−1 (R2 = 0.999) with a limit of detection of 1.3 μmolL−1. The nitrite concentration was determined in five water samples and the achieved values ranged from (28.7 ± 1.6) to (67.1 ± 0.5) µmol L−1. The data showed that using the proposed methodology revealed satisfactory recovery values (83.5–103.8%) and is in good agreement with the reference technique. Due to its low sample consumption, portability potential, high analytical frequency, and instrumental simplicity, the developed methodology may be considered a promising strategy to monitor and quantitatively determine nitrite in environmental samples.

Keywords

• chip-based electrophoresis
• environmental monitoring
• miniaturized systems
• nitrogen cycle
• portable instrumentation