Chiral compounds
Capillary electrophoresis - Applications

The many advantages of CE, such as simplicity, speed, selectivity, high efficiency and low cost, have made this approach indispensable for the analysis of chiral compounds. The mode most often used in this case is EKC, where a chiral selector is added to the separation electrolyte since the 2 enantiomers, having the same charge-to-size ratio, and therefore the same electrophoretic mobility, cannot be separated in CZE. This chiral selector complexes partially with each enantiomer, giving them different electrophoretic mobilities, and thus enabling them to be separated. From a theoretical point of view, the difference in mobility Δμ between the two enantiomers is expressed as