CAPILLARY ELECTROCHROMATOGRAPHY - A REVIEW

Capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is a modern liquid chromatograph ic technique which has attracted renewed curiosity from the scientific community in recent years, despite having origins in the 1970s. The g rowing interest in this field is reflected in the increasing number of scientific publications and presentations dealing with the technique; the majority of work reviewed here is from the last five years. This review concerns itself primarily with both the development of capillar y electrochromatography, from early experimentation to the present day , and its widespread application. The fundamental theory is discussed, as well as experimental aspects such as mode of operation (isocratic or gradient) and detection. Considerable attention is devoted to CEC c olumns; in particular, the preparation of frits and their associated p roblems. A large number of applications are summarised in tabular form , which provides an insight into the capabilities and scope of this te chnique. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.