Analysis of amino acids based on capillary electrophoresis with LIF detection using on-capillary derivatization

Combination of capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection provides high separation efficiency and sensitivity of the detection. Amino acids, which are very important for living organisms, and their levels in biological fluids can reveal health state of organisms, exhibit very low or no native fluorescence. As a result time consuming and laborious derivatization procedure has to be performed. Inner space of narrow capillary used in capillary electrophoresis can be used both for separation and derivatization. Optimization and comparison of pre-capillary and on-capillary derivatization of amino acids are subjects of this contribution.