Capillary electrophoresis of small ions using complex formation and indirect detection

The journal Electrophoresis was launched in about the same time as modern CE. Today, Electrophoresis is one of the leading journals in the field of analytical separations. With over 23% of all papers on CE published in the past 5 years Electrophoresis is also the number one journal covering CE applications. During the past three decades CE has matured into one of the key separation techniques for the analysis of a large variety of ions. Analysis of small organic and inorganic ions used to be a high flyer during the development of CE, often under the name capillary ion analysis. In this mode it was mostly applied for analysis of inorganic ions in waters and/or determination of food ingredients and additives. Complex forming equilibria were commonly used for optimization of the separation and indirect UV absorbance detection was often the only choice for the detection of non-absorbing ions. This short critical overview reflects some of the aspects of CE based on indirect UV absorbance detection and complex forming equilibria related to our work on the topic published in Electrophoresis almost 20 years ago.