Capillary zone electrophoresis of rare earth metals with indirect UV absorbance detection

The separation of 14 lanthanides by capillary zone electrophoresis was studied in the background electrolyte containing hydroxyisobutyric acid as complexing counter- ion and creatinine as a UV absorbing coion for indirect detection oflanthanide zones. A complete separation was achieved in less than 5 min and the applicability of the method for the analysis of real samples was demonstrated.