Capillary Electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is an analytical liquid-base separation technique used to separate biomolecules or ions in submillimeter diameter capillaries and in micro- and nanofluidic channels based on their electrophoretic mobility under the influence of an electric field. Additionally, capillary electrophoresis makes analytes concentrated or "focused" by means of gradients in conductivity and pH. Very often, CE refers to capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), but other electrophoretic techniques including capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE), capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF), capillary isotachophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) belong also to this class of methods. The capillary electrophoresis system is widely used in analytical biochemical processes, such as nucleic acid analysis, coenzyme separation, protein identification, genome sequencing, and DNA fingerprinting.