Application of micellar electrokinetic chromatography to pharmaceutical analysis

Electrokinetic chromatography is a new type of analytical separation method which belongs to the group of high performance capillary electrophoretic techniques but whose separation principle is based on that of chromatography. The solute distributes itself between a carrier and the surrounding medium. The carrier, which corresponds to the stationary phase in conventional chromatography, can be transported by electrophoresis with a different velocity from the surrounding medium. The separation is achieved by the differential solute distribution and the differential migration of the carrier. The charged molecules or charged molecular aggregates are employed as the carrier. Various kinds of carriers are available for electrokinetic chromatography along with different partition mechanisms. Among them, micellar electrokinetic chromatography, which employs an ionic micelle as a carrier, has become the most popular method because of its unique and attractive characteristics as well as the separating capability of electrically neutral or nonionic solutes in comparison with capillary zone electrophoresis. The present paper describes the principle, separation characteristics and its application to the analysis of pharmaceuticals.