Capillary Electrophoresis

This chapter reviews capillary electrophoresis (CE) techniques. CE consists of a high-voltage power supply, two buffer reservoirs, a fused silica capillary, and a detector. The basic setup is usually completed with enhanced features such as multiple injection devices, autosamplers, sample, and capillary temperature controls. Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) allows the separation of anions and cations as a direct function of their effective charge to size ratio. Capillary electrochromatography is a relatively new coming capillary separation technique that uses the same fused silica capillaries as in CE, except that they are filled with silica-based materials or with polymeric sorbents. Several capillary electrophoretic separations have been developed for the determination of antibiotics, herbicides, and toxins. Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) is mostly applied when one or more target components are neutral. The chiral CZE and chiral MEKC methods for food contaminants and components are also elaborated in the chapter.