Recent applications of the derivatization techniques in capillary electrophoresis

The main reasons for performing derivatization in capillary electrophoresis are largely the same as for liquid chromatography, however there are specific aspects in electrokinetic separations where derivatization plays specific roles. The review is focused on the articles published in the past 5 years with the aim to highlight this unicity. Derivatization is mainly applied to improve the inherent low sensitivity of capillary electrophoresis when optical detection is used and the introduction of originally developed derivatization approaches have been addressed mainly to the detection by laser-induced fluorescence. A further peculiarity concerns the development of automatized as well as in-capillary derivatization that can be performed using the commercially available instrumentation. The majority of the methods considered deal with the derivatization of amine group in small molecules (in particular, amino acids) as well as in proteins and peptides. Applications are also addressed to chiral analysis and for trapping unstable and reactive small molecules and inorganic ions. The analysis of proteins and saccharides in glycomics, have been covered in dedicated sections.