We explored isotachophoresis-capillary zone electrophoresis (ITP-CZE) with diode array detection on a single capillary to find out how to increase the injection volume and decrease the detection limits of aromatic sulfonates in CZE. The ITP was performed by applying a negative voltage in conjunction with hydrodynamic backpressure programming, and the terminating buffer was removed before the CZE separation, which resulted in highly sensitive determinations. The ITP increased the signal response of conventional hydrodynamic injection by a factor of 100, whereas the separation efficiency was unaffected. The limits of detection of the method were between 3 and 5 mugL(-1). The method was successfully used to determine these compounds in water samples. Experimental conditions for capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry were optimized and applied to determine aromatic sulfonates in water samples. These techniques enables the 2-naphthalenesulfonate to be determined in water samples.