Selection of background electrolyte for CZE analysis by a chemometric approach: Part I. Separation of a mixture of acidic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

This paper is the first part of the presentation of a chemometric approach for the rapid selection of a suitable background electrolyte (BGE) in CZE analysis of small drug molecules. The strategy is based on principal component analysis and experimental design. In this first section, the approach is applied to the analysis of a mixture of six arylpropionic anti-inflammatory drugs. Initially, 222 possible aqueous background electrolytes (objects) were characterized using as descriptors pH, conductivity, ionic strength and relative viscosity. In order to allow the dissociation of the acidic analytes, this original data set was reduced to 154 background electrolytes with pH values higher than or equal to 5. Principal component analysis made it possible to graphically represent the new set of objects, described by the four variables, in a two-dimensional space. Among these electrolytes, Kennard-Stone algorithm selected ten objects to be tested by CZE, covering homogeneously principal component space. CZE analyses were carried out with the selected electrolytes, and 0.1 M borax was identified as the most suitable one for the specified application. Finally, the characteristics of the analysis were finely tuned by means of a response surface study, which allowed the best conditions to be determined: borax concentration, 0.09 M; methanol, 6% (v/v); temperature, 24 degrees C, voltage, 20 W. Applying these conditions, a baseline resolution among the six compounds was obtained in less than 10 min.