Preconcentration and microreaction technology on-line with capillary electrophoresis

The techniques of capillary electrophoresis (CE) are often the methods of choice for the analysis of complex mixtures of chemically similar molecules. Their applicability to studies across many diverse disciplines is quite remarkable. However, poor concentration limits of detection of CE methods often preclude their use for the analysis of dilute analyte mixtures. This limitation has been addressed by the development of analyte concentrator and membrane preconcentration cartridges. These devices are used to insert an appropriate adsorptive phase into the inlet of the CE capillary, to enable the analysis of sample amounts that are in vast excess of the total capillary volume, An ability to perform on-line microreactions is a further advantage afforded by these devices. In this report, we present all attempted approaches at on-line preconcentration and microreaction with analyte separation by CE. We discuss the potential merits of each technique and describe our views of the future developments of analyte concentrator and membrane preconcentration technologies.