Capillary electrophoretic determination of ions in soils

The applicability, sensitivity and repetitivity, as well as general aspects of the Capillary Zone Electrophoresis (CZE) technique was studied as applied in the identification and quantification of Cl-, NO3-, HCO3-, SO42-, PO43-, Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+, contained in a 1:1 soil-water extract of three Inceptisols. Results were compared with those obtained using usual methods and found to be satisfactory for most of the ions studied. Detection limits were from 0.3 to 1.5 ppm for the diferent analytes, and a repetitivity with variation coefficients of less than 2% in the case of anions. The advantage of CZE in terms of speed, economy, and precision are excellent.