Recent strategies to improve resolution in capillary electrophoresis—A review

Besides the classical approaches used in capillary electrophoresis (CE) to improve separation, new strategies have been more recently introduced. This review presents some targeted strategies that have been recently developed in order to enhance the resolution of electrokinetic separations. Both novel electrolytes (non-aqueous and isoelectric buffers) and additives (ionic liquids) are presented in terms of performances and mechanisms involved to increase separation resolution. The advantages of innovative methodologies employed in electrokinetic miniaturization are also presented, that allow resolution enhancement. Finally, an insight into the complementarity of a specific hyphenated detection, i.e. mass spectrometry (MS), is performed, as an original strategy to help for better characterization of complex mixtures separation.