Hyphenated Capillary Electrophoresis Techniques

The spectrum of new analytical techniques includes superior separation techniques and sophisticated detection methods. Most of the novel instruments are hyphenated, where the separation and detection elements are combined, allowing efficient use of materials sometimes available only in minute quantities. The hyphenated techniques also significantly increase the information content of the analysis. Recent developments in separation sciences are directed towards micro-analytical techniques, including capillary gas chromatography, microbore high performance liquid chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis. 

M. Pelzing and C. NeusiiB. Separation Techniques Hyphenated to Electrospray-Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Proteomics Capillary Electrophoresis versus Nanoliquid Chromatography. Electrophoresis, 26(2005) 2717-2728. 

The hyphenation of CE and NMR combines a powerful separation technique with an information-rich detection method. Although compared with LC-NMR, CE-NMR is still in its infancy it has the potential to impact a variety of applications in pharmaceutical, food chemistry, forensics, environmental, and natural products analysis because of the high information content and low sample requirements of this method [82-84]. In addition to standard capillary electrophoresis separations, two CE variants have become increasingly important in CE-NMR, capillary electrochromatography and capillary isotachophoresis, both of which will be described later in this section. 

Dedicated applications of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) coupled to MS are discussed, particularly in the field of drug analysis. Development of other capillary-based electrodriven separation techniques such as non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE), micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), and capillary electrochromatography (CEC) hyphenated with MS are also treated. The successful coupling of these electromigration schemes with MS detection provides an efficient and sensitive analytical tool for the separation, quantitation, and identification of numerous pharmaceutical, biological, therapeutic, and environmental compounds. 

Mass spectrometry (MS) is probably a famhiar tool to chemistry and biology students as a technique commonly used to measure the molecular mass of a sample. Often, MS is used in tandem with other techniques for chromatic separation of the sample before mass measurement. Some common hyphenated techniques include HPLC-MS, high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled to MS GC-MS, gas chromatography coupled to MS or CE-MS, capillary electrophoresis coupled to MS. 

Figure 5.20 Schematic of hyphenated ICP mass spectrometric techniques by coupling a capillary electrophoresis system (CE) to ICP-MS. (I. S. Becker and H. /. Dietze, Int. /. Mass Spectrom. In Proc. 197, / (2000). Reproduced by permission of Elsevier.)...

A very exciting development in multidimensional separation involves the coupling of LC to GC or other techniques, such as capillary electrophoresis (CE). Online coupling of LC with multidimensional GC has allowed efficient determination of the stilbene hormones in corned beef (3), whereas LC-GC coupling permitted determination of levamisole residues in milk (4). With these hyphenated techniques, the potential of selective separation is becoming increasingly apparent. 

Lustig, S., Michalke, B., Beck, W. and Schramel, R (1998) Platinum speciation with hyphenated techniques high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis on-line coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer -application to aqueous extracts from a platinum treated soil. Fresenius J. Anal. Chem., 360,18-23. 

In all these applications, the separation step is one of the most critical during the whole analytical process. Solid phase extraction (SPE) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) were also proposed for high-resolution and quantitative separations of analytes. Therefore it is likely that the use of chromatographic techniques in this area will be increased in the near future. The development of adequate interfaces for such hyphenated techniques is the most important problem to be solved by researchers in the field of biopolymer analysis. 

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