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

Foreword
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was born of the marriage
of the powerful separation mechanisms of electrophoresis
with the instrumentation and automation concepts of
chromatography. The early phases of its evolution were
mostly concerned with determining its characteristics and
learning about some of the inherent capabilities of the
technique. It has now entered its second decade of development.
Today CE is a technique with much promise, but it is
still in a somewhat immature state, especially compared to
the older and more established methods of gas chromatography,
liquid chromatography, and conventional gel electrophoresis.
Those searching for “canned” or “off-the-shelf”
solutions to problems may find the literature somewhat
sparse. The number of publications concerning application
of CE to practical problems is growing at an explosive rate,
but is still small in volume when compared to the older and
more established separation methods.
If you are coming to CE from a background of chromatography,
working in CE does require mastering some new
concepts and terminology, such as electrophoretic mobility
and electroosmosis. If your background is in conventional
gel elctrophoresis, you will be faced with a more “instrumental”
approach to electrophoresis; one which includes
autosamplers, on-line/real-time detection, and direct
computer interfacing for experimental control and data
acquisition. It may be reassuring to know that one comment
repeatedly made by first time CE users is how simple
CE actually is, and how quickly one can get useful results.
Today there are many modes of CE to help solve problems.
These include free zone electrophoresis, gels for sieving
and molecular weight based separations, isoelectric
focusing, and isotachophoresis. Thanks to the clever ideas
of Professor Terabe, one can even do separations using
charged micelle “pseudophases” (micellar electrokinetic
chromatography, or MEKC), where a molecule’s hydrophobicity
can play a role in the separation, and even neutral
molecules can be resolved in an electric field. The field of
6