Flow/sequential injection sample treatment coupled to capillary electrophoresis. A review Review Article

Various flow sample handling approaches coupled to capillary electrophoresis (CE) are reviewed, covering the research in this field in the 12 years since the milestone year of 1997, when practical interfaces to on-line couple flow injection (FI) and capillary electrophoresis were first developed independently by two research groups. Some previous attempts are also presented. Since 1997 a plethora of ingenious coupled systems have been developed. Although several reviews are available on various aspects of the topic, we have opted for a comprehensive overview of all FI–CE systems, as well as related and similar systems. This coupling has thus also led to the development of systems based on hybrids between the classical and microchip approaches. Truly microchip FI–CE systems are also included in this review.