Inorganic species and small organic ions, Special Issue of Electrophoresis

The separation of inorganic anions and cations by capillary electrophoresis (CE) was demonstrated in about 1989, with the separation of 30 inorganic and organic anions in 90 s with indirect spectrophotometric detection being reported (V. Pac‚àö¬8kov‚àö¬8 et al., this issue pp. 1883‚Äö-1891). This was soon followed by the separation of 27 inorganic cations (alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, and lanthanides) in 4 min, again using indirect spectrophotometric detection (B. Paull and M. King, this issue pp. 1892‚Äö- 1934). These separations created a great deal of excitement amongst separation scientists working in the field of inorganic separations because of the speed of separation and very high separation efficiencies offered by CE. Intense research effort was then applied to the development of CE as a possible alternative for ion chromatography. In the mid 1990s it was recognised that capillary electrochromatography (CEC)