Separation method based solely on the differences in the electrophoretic mobilities of charged species in capillaries.
Notes: - The background electrolyte may be an aqueous or non-aqueous solution.
- The electrolytes can contain additives, which can interact with the charged species and alter their electrophoretic mobilities.
- The use of the term capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a collective term for all capillary electromigration techniques is not recommended, as some of these techniques involve separation mechanisms other than electrophoresis.
- The basic kind of CE is capillary zone electrophoresis in which separation takes place in the homogeneous solution of the background electrolyte on the basis of different electrophoretic mobilities of analytes in a free solution.
See: capillary affinity electrophoresis
Source:
PAC, 2017, 90, 181. 'Terminology of separation methods (IUPAC Recommendations 2017)' on page 213 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2017-0111)