The present paper deals with the role of the solvent on thermal peak broadening. One main solvent property that determines the magnitude of the temperature gradient due to the generation of Joule heat in capillary zone electrophoresis is the thermal conductivity. As organic solvents have lower thermal conductivity than water (methanol and acetonitrile, e.g., nearly by a factor of 3) it can be hypothesized that the temperature gradient inside the capillary is more pronounced in organic solvents compared to an aqueous solution. On the other hand, the temperature dependence of the ion mobility (which is responsible for the velocity profile and thus for thermal peak broadening) is smaller in organic solvents. To get insight into the thermal effect of the solvent, first the temperature of a solution in a cylindrical tube was calculated utilizing the heat balance equation. It was shown that the two theoretical models most common in the literature (based on the analytical solution or on an assumption of the parabolic temperature profile in the tube, respectively) give the same results. The latter model was chosen for the further calculations, adding a quadratic term to express the electric conductivity as a function of the temperature. The temperature at the inner capillary wall and center as function of the capillary dimensions and the electric power was computed for electrolytes with a given conductivity at 25.0 degrees C with water, methanol, and acetonitrile as solvents. Capillary cooling systems used were circulating liquid cooling, enforced air-cooling, and natural convection in still air. The mean temperature (averaged over the cross section) resulting from Joule heating was compared with experimentally determined temperatures established upon application of an electric field; the latter temperature was derived from the measurement of the electric conductance of the background electrolyte solution and its (measured) temperature dependence. All investigations were carried out with solutions of the same initial electric conductivity (about 0.5 S.m(-1) at 25.0 degrees C). Agreement is found for natural convection conditions, and the deviation between theoretical and experimental results for the forced air and circulated liquid cooling systems can be related to the poorly defined thermal conditions of the capillaries in commercial instrumentation (with a part in a thermostated cassette and a part outside). For given conditions the temperature gradients in the organic solvents exceed largely those in water, independent of the type of cooling. As a consequence, the thermal plate height is significantly larger in organic solvents, at least under conditions where the deviation from the Nernst-Einstein limiting case is not too high. However, even for the maximum applicable field strengths the thermal plate height contributions are negligible compared to longitudinal diffusion in all solvents.

Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography was applied for the separation of levetiracetam from other antiepileptic drugs (primidone, phenobarbital, phenytoin, lamotrigine and carbamazepine) that are potentially coadministered in therapy of patients. The influence of the composition of the microemulsion system (with sodium dodecyl sulfate as charged surfactant) was investigated, modifying the kind of cosurfactant (lower alcohols from C3 to C5), the pH (and salinity) of the aqueous background electrolyte, and the ratio of aqueous phase to organic constituents forming the microdroplets of the oil-in-water emulsion. Separation selectivity was depending on all these parameters, resulting even in changes of the migration sequence of the analytes. Only moderate correlation was observed for the microemulsion system compared with a micellar system, both consisting of the aqueous borate buffer (pH 9.2) and SDS as micelle former (linear correlation coefficient for analyte mobilities is 0.974). The sample solvent plays an important role on the shape of the resulting chromatograms: methanol at concentrations higher than 35% impairs peak shape and separation efficiency. The microemulsion method (with 93.76% aqueous borate buffer (pH 9.2, 10 mM), 0.48% n-octane, 1.80% SDS, 3.96% 1-butanol, all w/w) is suitable for the determination of levetiracetam in human plasma (combined with a sample pretreatment based on solid-phase extraction).

Single isomer octakis-(2,3-dihydroxy-)6-sulfato-gamma-cyclodextrin used as pseudostationary phase of the background electrolyte interacts with dibenzo[b,f]azepines (consisting of a condensed 3-ring system) and forms negatively charged complexes. Hydroxygroups in position 2 and 3 at carbamazepine increase the extent of interaction, whereas substitution by oxygen at position 10 and/or 11 reduces it. The complex constants for the analytes are ranging from few tens L/mol (10-hydroxycarbamazepine, 10,11-dihydroxycarbamazepine, 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine, oxcarbazepine) to several hundreds L/mol (carbamazepine, 2-hydroxycarbamazepine, 3-hydroxycarbamazepine), and are much larger than those of the analytes with octakis-(2,3-dimethyl-)-6-sulfato-gamma-cyclodextrin. Full enantiomeric separation of the chiral metabolites of carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine is obtained at octakis-(2,3-dihydroxy-)-6-sulfato-gamma-cyclodextrin concentrations of about 10 mM (3 mM borate buffer, pH 8.5). Compared to heptakis-6-sulfato-beta-cyclodextrin, selectivity differs and stereoselectivity is more pronounced.

Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography for the separation of carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, and their metabolites Microemulsion electrokinetic capillary chromatography was applied to separate two dibenzo[b,f]azepine-derived antiepileptic drugs from their metabolites, namely carbamazepine from 10,11-dihydro-10,11-epoxycarbamazepine, 10,11-dihydro-10,11dihydroxycarbamazepine, 2-hydroxycarbamazepine and 3-hydroxycarbamazepine; and oxcarbazepine from 10,11-dihydro-10-hydroxycarbamazepine and 10,11-dihydro-10,11-dihydroxycarbamazepine. Different separation parameters were varied in order to modify the mobilities of the compounds to be separated: the type of the cosurfactant (homologous series of 1-alkanols), the pH and salinity of the aqueous background electrolyte, the concentration of the organic constituents of the microemulsion system (n-octane, SDS, 1-alkanol). The potential for selectivity changes was highly restricted. However, favourable separation conditions were found at 1.98% SDS, 0.48% n-octane, and 3.96% 1-butanol (all w/w), 93.6% aqueous borate buffer consisting of 10 mM borate/boric acid at pH 9.7. With an uncoated fused-silica capillary of 36.5 cm total length (effective length 28 cm; 50 lm ID), a running voltage of 10 kV, and a thermostating temperature of 20.08C baseline separation of all analytes was obtained within less than 13 min.