Analysis of chlortetracycline and related substances by capillary zone electrophoresis: Development and validation

A capillary zone electrophoresis method has been developed and validated for the analysis of chlortetracycline and related substances. The influence of the type of buffer, pH and concentration of the buffer were investigated. In all cases 1 mM EDTA was added to prevent metal ion complexation. Instrumental parameters such as capillary temperature and applied voltage were optimised. The following methods is proposed: capillary: fused silica, 44 cm (36 cm effective length), 50 μm i.d.; buffer: 120 mM sodium tetraborate including 1mM EDTA at pH 8.5; voltage: 10 kV; temperature: 25°C; detection wavelength: 280 nm. The robustness of the method has been examined by means of a full-fraction factorial design. The parameters for validation namely relative standard deviation, linearity, precision, limit of detection and limit of quantitation are also reported.