High performance capillary electrophoresis - T.E.A.M.

separation, detection, quantitative analysis, equipment
and automation, and so on, are discussed in this book.
Introduction
1.2 Current state of
development
CE is a rapidly growing separation technique. One of the
greatest advantages is its diverse application range. Originally
considered primarily for the analysis of biological
macromolecules, it has proved useful for separations of
compounds such as amino acids, chiral drugs, vitamins,
pesticides, inorganic ions, organic acids, dyes, surfactants,
peptides and proteins, carbohydrates, oligonucleotides and
DNA restriction fragments, and even whole cells and virus
particles.
The mechanisms responsible for separation in CE are
different from those in chromatography, and thus can offer
orthogonal, complementary analyses. In addition, CE may
offer simpler method development, minimal sample volume
requirements, and lack of organic waste.
While numerous advances are being made in CE, the
technique is still in a development and growth stage. The
number of publications per year on CE has risen from about
90 in 1983, to about 140 in 1987, to more than 300 in 1991.
Incumbent with new technology is a lag time between
published results generated by researchers developing the
technique and the formation of a workable knowledge-base
for the user. Scientists should be aware that CE is not totally
mature, relative to HPLC for example. Both development of
the theory and its application to separation problems are
still somewhat incomplete. This implies, for example, that
methods may need to be developed and optimized for each
application by the user.
Significant advances, however, have already been achieved
in the past few years which have begun to standardize the
use of CE. These include improvements in migration time
and peak area reproducibility as well as quantitative analy-
13