Recent progress in analytical capillary ITP

ITP is an electrophoretic technique that has been attracting constant attention for many years due to its pronounced capability to concentrate trace analytes by several orders of magnitude. In practice, it is used predominantly in capillary format, where the capillaries used have id ranging between 0.02 and 0.8 mm. The volumes of the samples introduced may be up to several tens of microliters and trace analytes diluted in such a volume are concentrated into zones having volumes in the range of picoliters. Moreover, it offers simultaneously efficient separation of the analytes. That is why ITP retains its important position in many current multistage and multidimensional separation schemes where it is used always as the starting step that brings preseparation and concentration of sample components. This article links up previous reviews on the topic and summarizes the progress of analytical capillary ITP since 2006; 90 reviewed papers include theory and methodological novelties as well as analytical applications. Papers using ITP as part of multistage separation schemes are also included.