Thirty-five years of capillary electrophoresis: Advances and perspectives

Since the publication by Hjerten of his study on free zone electrophoresis thirty-five years ago and the publication by Jorgenson and Lukacs of their study in 1981, CE instrumentation and applications have become widespread. CE today includes capillary zone electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic chromatography, capillary gel electrophoresis, capillary isoelectric focusing, isotacophoresis, and capillary electrochromatography. Array capillary electrophoresis and array microchip separations are also important aspects of modem CE instrumentation. CE has become a versatile analytical technique, which is successfully used for the separation of small ions, neutral molecules, and large biomolecules and for the study of physicochemical parameters. It is being utilized in widely different fields, such as analytical, forensic, clinical, and organic chemistry, in addition to natural products, the pharmaceutical industry, chiral separations, molecular biology, and other fields.