In recent years capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been developed into
a versatile separation technique, next to gas and liquid chromatograp
hy (LC), well suited for the determination of a wide variety of e.g.,
pharmaceutical, biomedical and environmental samples. The main advanta
ges of CE over chromatographic separation techniques are its simplicit
y and efficiency. It is well recognized, however, that the sensitivity
and selectivity of the detection are relatively weak points of CE. On
e way to overcome these limitations is the conversion (derivatization)
of the analytes into product(s) with more favourable detection charac
teristics. Although, in principle, almost any detection mode can be co
mbined with a derivatization procedure, in practice, fluorescence moni
toring is favoured in most cases. This paper aims to give a short over
view on the various reagents that can be used for pre-, post-and on-co
lumn derivatization in CE. First, a short introduction is given on CE
as an analytical technique, followed by a discussion of the pros and c
ons of the various modes of derivatization, a comparison of derivatiza
tions in CE with derivatizations in LC, the principles of fluorescence
and prerequisites for a good fluorophore and the potential of using d
iode lasers in combination with a labelling procedure. With respect to
the derivatization reagents the emphasis is on the labelling of amino
, aldehyde, keto, carboxyl, hydroxyl and sulfhydryl groups. (C) 1998 P
ublished by Elsevier Science B.V.