Pushing Capillary Electrophoresis in Chip Format into the Low Cost Region

• Main Authors: Hoffmann, Werner E., Mühlberger, Holger, Demattio, Horst, Gas, Bohuslav, Guber, Andreas E., Saile, Volker
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1938-5862; 1938-6737
• DOI: 10.1149/1.2357280

Scaling down of capillary electrophoresis into the microfluidic chip format needs further effort to bring this powerful but still cost-intensive separation technique to broader application at reasonable budget charging. Here, two key components of the measurement system are addressed: Chip substrate material and analyte detector. Based on polymer chips, including the favored polyether ether keton (PEEK) material for chemical analysis and introducing electrically contactless conductivity detection (CCD) well compatible to electrophoretic separation a low cost, simple to handle and flexible measurement system was developed. As demonstrated, this Miniaturized Capillary Electrophoresis (MinCE) device is well suitable for small ion analysis. It is designed for budget-conscious application of lab-on-a-chip technology ranging from food analysis, environment monitoring and medical diagnostics to basic research or even for education in electromigration separation analytical techniques.