<title>Ultrasensitive near-IR fluorescence detection in capillary zone electrophoresis</title>

Abstract

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) is a powerful new separation technique which possesses the ability to separate small and large molecules. Due to the small volume of material that is typically loaded onto the column, ultrasensitive detection is often required. We have constructed a laser-induced fluorescence detector appropriate for CZE applications using near- IR fluorescence excitation and detection. Separations of native NIR fluorescent dyes in nonaqueous running buffer systems have been performed with detection sensitivities in the low zeptomole range, comparable to state-of-the-art detection limits reported for visible fluorescence detection in CZE. Using our NIR fluorescence detector and NIR labeling dyes synthesized in our laboratory, we present electropherograms of peptides and proteins separated by CZE and detected with NIR fluorescence. We also discuss the basic operating principles of CZE as well as the instrumental components necessary to perform CZE separations.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.