Nano-stationary phases for capillary electrophoresis techniques

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a rapidly growing technique in separation sciences due to its high-resolution power, short analysis times, and low consumption of reagents and samples. Recently, nanomaterials have made great contributions to the innovation of new stationary phases for various chromatographic technologies in separation sciences. The introduction of nanomaterials has remarkably enhanced the performance of these stationary phases with regard to retentive capability and selectivity. In this chapter, we present an up-to-date overview of the developments of stationary phases based on nanomaterials for CE. We devote a large part of this review to the accomplishments in the past 5 years with regard to retention and selectivity offered by new nano-CE stationary phases, predominantly including carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, 148nano-graphene, and nano-diamonds. We have also detailed the different synthetic strategies for nano-stationary phase immobilization procedures. In the end, future prospects of new nano-CE stationary phases are also commented.