Capillary Electrophoresis

WynSep has developed the Wyn-CE, a Modular Capillary Electrophoresis Instrument for the Teaching and Research activities. Capillary Electrophoresis is similar to chromatography in terms of separation science but the main principle is to separate compounds according to their charge. This technique has emerged in the 80's and comes from slab gel electrophoresis technology.

The main difference with Slab Gel electrophoresis is to use a bare fused silica capillary filled with an electrolyte solution to offer a great resistance while applying an Electric Field. The consequence is to be able to use very high potentials (up to 30kV) while maintaining a very low intensity (few µA). Therefore Capillary Electrophoresis has a great separation efficiency.

The Capillary Zone Electrophoresis (CZE) is the most common mode and is based on two main principles that allow the separations of the compounds : The Electromigration and the Electroosmosis. The last principle also called Electroosmotic Flow (EOF) is the real "pump" of the system. Throughout the separation process the EOF has a flat elution profile that allows to get exceptional resolutions.

The "On-column" detection prevents from any dead volume and means there is an Efficient Length - from the injection to the detection - and a Total Length where is applied the potential and that determines the electric field.

All this features make the Capillary Electrophoresis a rapid and resolutive technique. The cost of ownership is reduced compared to other techniques and the sample consumption is very low (some nL).