Capillary electrochromatography (CEC) continues to captivate many separation scientists. A remarkable activity is apparent from the numerous publications in the literature using CEC. A review of the most recent progress in CEC is presented herein, covering an extensive fraction of the literature on CEC published from the year 1997 until the beginning of 2000. Most of the recent developments have concentrated on column technology.

Recent progress in capillary electrochromatography.

Capillary electrochromatography (CEC) has seen a resurgence of interest during the 1990s, despite having origins in the 1970s. The technique combines the desirable features of both high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE): the separation process is based on differential interactions between the stationary and mobile phases, whilst the electroosmotic flow transports the mobile phase through the capillary. Thus, it has demonstrated advantages over both HPLC and CE, which are yet to be fully exploited over a wide field of application; already the popularity of CEC is on the increase, as reflected in the number of scientific publications and seminars held. The aim of this tutorial review is to increase awareness and understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of CEC. Whilst it does not provide an in-depth account of CEC, it does attempt to cover the more important, relevant work available in the open literature: only major advancements associated with CEC applications are highlighted. Material presented in the review was typically obtained by literature searches involving Analytical Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts and ‘BIDS’ (for academic use only).

Capillary electrochromatography. Tutorial Review

Applications performed by capillary electrochromatography (CEC) in all its modes, namely packed column CEC (packed-CEC), open tubular CEC (OT-CEC) and pressure-assisted CEC (pseudo-CEC), and published by June 1999 are reviewed. The review is divided into (i) separation of neutral, acidic and basic analytes with the main goal of evaluating column and system performance, (ii) separation according to field of application and/or chemical class, and (iii) separation of chiral analytes.

Qian-Hong Wan

Papers

Capillary electrochromatography: effect of electrolyte concentration on electroosmotic flow and column efficiency