Recent approaches in sensitive enantioseparations by CE

The latest strategies and instrumental improvements for enhancing the detection sensitivity in chiral analysis by CE are reviewed in this work. Following the previous reviews by García-Ruiz et al. (Electrophoresis 2006, 27, 195-212) and Sánchez-Hernández et al. (Electrophoresis 2008, 29, 237-251; Electrophoresis 2010, 31, 28-43), this review includes those papers that were published during the period from June 2009 to May 2011. These works describe the use of offline and online sample treatment techniques, online sample preconcentration techniques based on electrophoretic principles, and alternative detection systems to UV-Vis to increase the detection sensitivity. The application of the above-mentioned strategies, either alone or combined, to improve the sensitivity in the enantiomeric analysis of a broad range of samples, such as pharmaceutical, biological, food and environmental samples, enables to decrease the limits of detection up to 10⁻¹² M. The use of microchips to achieve sensitive chiral separations is also discussed.