Direct determination of glyphosate in environmental waters using capillary electrophoresis with electrospray condensation nucleation light scattering detection

An electrospray condensation nucleation light scattering detector (ESI-CNLSD) was coupled with capillary electrophoresis (CE) for analysis of glyphosate, a chemical of agricultural interest, which is otherwise difficult to detect owing to its lack of chromophores or fluorophores. To reduce the absorption of glyphosate on the CE capillary and to reduce the separation time, an N-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) pre-rinsing CE method was developed here. The protocol consisted of 15 min pre-rinsing of the capillary before analysis with CTAB solution and 5 min with ammonium acetate buffer at pH 2.8. The capillary inner wall coating established by this treatment lasted up to 10 h without bleeding to interfere with CNLSD signal. Calibration data were linear over two orders of magnitude, the instrument detection limit was 0.06 mug/mL and the method detection limit was 0.2 mug/mL. The method was applied to the analysis of local (rural area) lake water and commercial herbicide samples.