Electrophoresis and Potential-Driven Chromatography

Electrophoretic techniques are generally used for separation of charged analytes. Charged analytes move in electrolyte solutions when an electrical field is estabhshed. Separation is obtained if the charged analytes have different m ation velocity. The electrolyte solution is most commonly a mixture of weak acids and bases in water. 

Electrophoretic techniques are widely used in biochemistry, especially for separation of nucleotides and proteins. The electrophoretic separation can be carried out in an electrolyte solution with dose to physiological conditions, allowing the compounds to maintain their biological activity. The electrophoretic techniques can be divided into three main groups the traditional gd electrophoretic techniques and the more recent capillary electrophoresis (CE) and potential-driven chromatography (dectrochromatography) techniques. 

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Gel electrophoresis (GE) was developed in the 1940s, while capillary electrophoresis appeared 40 years later. Then chromatography with electric potential-driven liquid flow also developed into micellar electroldnetic chromatography (MEKC) and electrochromatography (EC), both with capillary columns. Electrophoresis, thus, is not a chromatographic technique, since there is no stationary phase, except in MEKC and EC. 

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