Monitoring of enzymatic reactions using conventional and on-chip capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

The use of CE with contactless conductivity detection was evaluated for monitoring enzymatic reactions. The nonionic species ethanol, glucose, ethyl acetate, and ethyl butyrate were made accessible for analysis by CE via charged products or by-products obtained in enzymatic conversions using hexokinase, glucose oxidase, alcohol dehydrogenase, and esterase. Two of the reactions, namely the conversion of glucose with glucose oxidase and that of ethylacetate with esterase, were also successfully demonstrated on a microchip device. Quantification for ethyl acetate, taken as an example, was found possible with a detection limit of approximately 7 mu M.