Sensitivity capillary electrophoresis

At present, the most promising methods for synthetic colorant analysis seem to be those based on separation approaches such as HPLC and capillary electrophoresis (CE). CE is the method of choice for the determination of synthetic dyes in biological materials while HPLC is generally a more suitable method for the identification and determination of hydrophobic natural pigments, having a better sensitivity and efficiency than CE. 

Sulfonylureas are not directly amenable to gas chromatography (GC) because of their extremely low volatility and thermal instability. GC has been used in conjunction with diazomethane derivatization, pentafluorobenzyl bromide derivatization, and hydrolysis followed by analysis of the aryl sulfonamides. These approaches have not become widely accepted, owing to poor performance for the entire family of sulfonylureas. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been evaluated for water analysis and soil analysis. The low injection volumes required in CE may not yield the required sensitivity for certain applications. Enzyme immunoassay has been reported for chlorsulfuron and triasulfuron, with a limit of detection (LOD) ranging from 20 to 100 ng kg (ppt) in soil and water. 

A variety of formats and options for different types of applications are possible in CE, such as micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), isotachophoresis (ITP), and capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE). The main applications for CE concern biochemical applications, but CE can also be useful in pesticide methods. The main problem with CE for residue analysis of small molecules has been the low sensitivity of detection in the narrow capillary used in the separation. With the development of extended detection pathlengths and special optics, absorbance detection can give reasonably low detection limits in clean samples. However, complex samples can be very difficult to analyze using capillary electrophoresis/ultraviolet detection (CE/UV). CE with laser-induced fluorescence detection can provide an extraordinarily low LOQ, but the analytes must be fluorescent with excitation peaks at common laser wavelengths for this approach to work. Derivatization of the analytes with appropriate fluorescent labels may be possible, as is done in biochemical applications, but pesticide analysis has not been such an important application to utilize such an approach. 

Jandik, P. and Jones, W. R., Optimization of detection sensitivity in the capillary electrophoresis of inorganic anion, /. Chromatogr., 546, 431, 1991. 

The method of choice for the measurement of ionization constants is potentio-metry [35,112-119]. Special circumstances warrant the determination of the pKa by UV spectrophotometry [120-143], capillary electrophoresis (CE) [144-147], and a chromatographic technique [148]. In principle, UV and CE methods are more sensitive and less sample-demanding than is the pH-metric method. That not withstanding, the latter method is preferred because it is so much better developed,... 

This instrumentation has exquisite sensitivity, which allows the analysis of single cancer cells (Hu et al., 2004). Our earlier work employed slow separation conditions and a rather primitive photodetection system. Our current system takes roughly 1 h to complete the two-dimensional capillary electrophoresis separation and employs state-of-the-art photodetectors. 

Michels, D.A., Hu, S., Schoenherr, R.M., Eggertson, M.J., Dovichi, NJ. (2002). Fully automated two-dimensional capillary electrophoresis for high sensitivity protein analysis. Mol. Cell. Proteomics 1, 69-74. 

OTC can be well separated from TC, DC, and its impurities by means of capillary electrophoresis [25]. However, the use of CE in the analysis of OTC residues is restricted because of the low concentration sensitivity of this technique [28]. HPLC is by far the most widely used method for the analysis of OTC residues in food and fisheries products. Chromatographic analysis of tetracycline including OTC analysis in foods was reviewed by Oka et al. [65] and MacNeil [72]. HPLC methods for the analysis of OTC are summarized in Table 2. 

Over the past two decades, capillary electrophoresis (CE) and related techniques have rapidly developed for the separation of a wide range of analytes, ranging from large protein molecules to small inorganic ions. Gas chromatography has been considered as a powerful tool due to its sensitivity and selectivity, especially when coupled with mass spectrometry. Nevertheless, liquid chromatography is the most used method to separate and analyze phenolic compounds in plant and tissue samples. 

In analytical chemistry there is an ever-increasing demand for rapid, sensitive, low-cost, and selective detection methods. When POCL has been employed as a detection method in combination with separation techniques, it has been shown to meet many of these requirements. Since 1977, when the first application dealing with detection of fluorophores was published [60], numerous articles have appeared in the literature [6-8], However, significant problems are still encountered with derivatization reactions, as outlined earlier. Consequently, improvements in the efficiency of labeling reactions will ultimately lead to significant improvements in the detection of these analytes by the POCL reaction. A promising trend is to apply this sensitive chemistry in other techniques, e.g., in supercritical fluid chromatography [186] and capillary electrophoresis [56-59], An alter-... 

A recent trend in analytical chemistry involves the application of CL as a detection system in combination with capillary electrophoresis as prior separation methodology, providing excellent analytical sensitivity and selectivity and allowing the resolution and quantification of various analytes in relatively complex mixtures. Until the 1990s, chemiluminometric detection was not applied after capillary electrophoretic separation, but fast developments from some im-... 

Another method which uses capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection can also be employed to detect zearalenone (Maragos and Appell 2007). In order to analyse trace amounts of zearalenone in plants, a sensitive, quick and accurate method, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed by Chen et al. 1989. 

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