The discovery of subsurface oceans of liquid water on the moons of the outer planets, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, have made them prime targets in the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.   In situ instrumentation with relatively simple methodologies capable of analyzing complex unknown samples is required to assess the habitability potential of these oceans.  Capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE-C<sup>4</sup>D) is well suited to this task since it allows the detection of ionic species, both inorganic and organic, in liquid samples without requiring complex sample pretreatment.  Here we present flight compatible methods for the simultaneous analysis of inorganic cations and amino acids relevant to astrobiology, and a simple methodology for determination of inorganic anions and organic acids that does not require coating the capillary walls to reverse the EOF.  The compatibility of these methods allows for the use of a single capillary to complete a total ion analysis for planetary science applications.  We are currently evaluating the performance of this method with natural samples that serve as analogues to icy moon subsurface oceans.

Analysis of organic and inorganic anions and cations by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection for planetary science applications

2019 Spring National Meeting

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