Microvolumes and separation techniques

Real solution samples often consist of mixtures of electroactive species in complex matrices, which usually requires the application of separation 

The information that can be obtained with electrochemical detectors is not restricted to quantification. Instead of the conventional use of electrochemical detectors in amperometric mode at fixed potential, electrode arrays with each electrode held at different values of fixed potential can be used, in order to build up chronovoltammograms, three-dimensional current-voltage-time profiles. A 32-microband electrode array has been described for this purpose and applied to phenolic compounds [17] and which permits studying the electrode reaction mechanism at the same time as identification and quantification are carried out. Alternatively, fast voltammetric techniques such as fast-scan cyclic voltammetry or square wave voltammetry can be used to create chronovoltammograms of the eluted components. 

In normal high pressure liquid chromatography, typical sample volumes are 20-200 p.L this can become as little as 1 nL in capillary HPLC. Pretreatment of the sample may be necessary in order to protect the stationary phase in the column from deactivation. By employing supercritical fluids such as carbon dioxide, pretreatment can be bypassed in many instances so that whole samples from industrial and environmental matrices can be introduced directly into the column. This is due to the fact that the fluid acts as both extraction solvent and mobile phase. Post-column electrochemistry has been demonstrated. For example, fast-scan cyclic voltammo-grams have been recorded as a function of time after injection of microgram samples of ferrocene and other compounds in dichloromethane solvent and which are eluted with carbon dioxide at pressures of the order of 100 atm and temperatures of 50°C the chromatogram is constructed as a plot of peak current vs. time [18]. 

An alternative approach, possibly better suited to tiny volumes, is that of capillary electrophoresis [19], which is highly efficient and fast, and has low operational cost. In capillary electrophoresis, an open-ended capillary, filled with the sample solution, links two buffer solutions. Voltages of the 

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