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Ionic Liquids in Capillary Electrophoresis

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1483))

Abstract

Recently, a great interest was drawn toward ionic liquids (ILs) in analytical separation techniques. ILs possess many properties making them excellent additives in capillary electrophoresis (CE) background electrolytes (BGE). The most important property is the charge of the dissolved ions in BGE enabling the cations to interact with deprotonated silanol groups on the capillary surface and thereby modifying the electroosmotic flow (EOF). Ionic and/or proton donor–acceptor interactions between analyte and IL are possible interactions facilitating new kinds of separation mechanisms in CE. Further advantages of ILs are the high conductivity, the environmentally friendliness, and the good solubility for organic and inorganic compounds. The most commonly used ILs in capillary electrophoresis are dialkylimidazolium-based ILs, whereas for enantioseparation a lot of innovative chiral cations and anions were investigated.

ILs are reported to be additives to a normal CE background electrolyte or the sole electrolyte in CE, nonaqueous CE (NACE), micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), and in enantioseparation. An overview of applications and separation mechanisms reported in the literature is given here, in addition to the enantioseparation of pseudoephedrine using tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC) as IL additive to an ammonium formate buffer containing β-cyclodextrin (β-CD).

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Holzgrabe, U., Wahl, J. (2016). Ionic Liquids in Capillary Electrophoresis. In: Schmitt-Kopplin, P. (eds) Capillary Electrophoresis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1483. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6403-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6403-1_8

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