ABSTRACT
Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) is closely related to free-solution capillary electrophoresis (CE), from which it evolved. Separation is affected by the partitioning of mixture components between two phases moving through a capillary: a mobile phase driven by electroosmosis, and a charged micellar phase driven by the combined but opposing effects of electroosmosis and electrophoresis. Analytes favoring the mobile phase elute rapidly from the capillary, whereas those favoring the micellar phase elute at later times. Similar separations can be carried out using other organized media (e.g., microemulsions, dendrimers, polyelectrolytes, charged/ neutral cyclodextrins, charge-transfer complexes, resorcarenes, calix[n]arenes, and vesicles).
