We explain the principles of EC and demonstrate its use to enrich anionic pollutants and cationic drugs in environmental samples.

Electrophoretic concentration (EC) is an electric field-driven and environmentally friendly off-line sample preparation for charged analytes. EC was demonstrated for the enrichment of either six anionic pollutants or five cationic drugs from purified, drinking, river, or waste- water samples. EC provided analyte enrichment in 15–50 min with concentration factors of 30–249 and 12–243 for the negatively and positively charged analytes, respectively. A modification of the EC device enabled simultaneous EC and separation (SECS) of six cationic and anionic herbicides with concentration factors of 18–337 in 30 min. The potential of SECS has also been evaluated for the determination of high mobility ions in urine and the results obtained have been compared to common acetonitrile treatment of urine. SECS provided an enrichment of high mobility ions and revealed more peaks compared to the acetonitrile treatment.