Chiral Separations Using the Macrocyclic Antibiotics in Capillary Electrophoresis

Although capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a relatively new technique as compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or thin-layer chromatography (TLC), it has increased significantly in popularity over the last decade. The increased attention and use of CE for chiral analysis has occurred for several reasons. The narrow bore fused silica capillaries used in CE efficiently dissipates heat, allowing for the use of high voltage that results in rapid and efficient separations. The amount of reagents and materials consumed in CE is minute, resulting in a tremendous reduction in waste disposal. Also, the small amount of waste generated by CE is mostly aqueous buffers and can often be discarded without any danger to the environment. This is a significant advantage over HPLC and TLC, where large volumes of organic solvent waste are generated and must be disposed. For chiral analysis, the resolving agents used in CE are dissolved in the running buffer to affect separation of chiral compounds.