Free Access
Issue
Analusis
Volume 28, Number 6, July/August 2000
Nitric oxide and superoxide in biological systems
Page(s) 543 - 549
Section Original articles
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/analusis:2000169
Analusis 28, 543-549 (2000)
DOI: 10.1051/analusis:2000169

Influence of secondary interactions on high performance size exclusion chromatography. Application to the fractionation of landfill leachates

F. Le Coupannec, D. Morin, O. Sire and J.-J. Péron

Laboratoire de Biologie et de Chimie Moléculaires, Université de Bretagne Sud, rue St-Maudé, 56325 Lorient, France


(Received March 30, 2000; revised July 17, 2000; accepted July 19, 2000.)

Abstract
The leachates from municipal landfills are characterised by the complex chemical distribution and wide molecular weights range of their constituents. We have designed a high performance size exclusion chromatography method to take into account these two aspects. By using eluents of low ionic strength, electrostatic interactions between the eluted molecules and the negative sites of the stationary phase are enhanced. Thus, the compounds are eluted mostly according to their physico-chemical properties. Contrarily, using eluents of high ionic strength allows eliminating most of these electrostatic interactions which, in turn, permits to estimate the molecular weights, since steric exclusion is then the dominating mechanism of separation. A spectroscopic fingerprint may also be determined through multidetection (UV absorption, fluorescence and evaporative light scattering detection) coupled on line which allows to sort out the compounds into a few number of families.


Key words: Landfill leachates -- high performance size exclusion chromatography -- secondary interactions -- characterisation.


© EDP Sciences, Wiley-VCH 2000