Electrochemical detection modes for microchip capillary electrophoresis

The interest in microchip capillary electrophoresis (mu-CE) with electrochemical detection (ECD) has increased considerably because ECD offers perfect features for mu-CE, including remarkable sensitivity, inherent miniaturization and portability, low cost, low-power requirements and great compatibility with microfabrication technologies. This review focuses on recent advances in integrating ECD, especially amperometric detection, with mu-CE. We discuss in detail effects of the separation electric field and development of strategies for isolating and not isolating detection from the separation electric field. We expect that mu-CE-ECD will become a powerful tool for clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and biological assays. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.