AN EASY WAY TO ENHANCE ABSORBENCY DETECTION SENSITIVITY OF WATERS QUANTA-4000 CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS SYSTEM

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has established itself as a powerful an d widely utilized technique for routine analytical separations, charac terized by short run times and high efficiencies. A major drawback to CE is its low concentration sensitivity. Because total system volume i s generally only a few mu l, the detector flow cell should have a smal l volume, which imposes a limit on detection sensitivities. In this st udy, we report a simple method for creating a region of extended path length for absorbance detection in capillary electrophoresis. Up to a six-fold gain in sensitivity, compared to on-column detection, was acc omplished when the sleeve-cell was utilized at the detection point.