AUTOMATED CAPILLARY ELECTROCHROMATOGRAPHY - RELIABILITY AND REPRODUCIBILITY STUDIES

The routine application of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is de monstrated by incorporating 75 mu m I.D. capillaries packed with 3 mu m octadecylsilica (ODS) particles into a commercial CZE instrument. A mixture of several neutral compounds is separated into its components with an average efficiency up to 181 000 plates/m in less than 8 min. Hundreds of consecutive runs are performed over a period of weeks from which it is concluded that the reproducibility of the capacity factor s is better than 2% and that CEC separations can be achieved in a reli able and routine manner.