CHROMATOGRAPHY, Vol. 28 (2007), No. 1, pp. 19-23

Microchip electrophoresis (MCE) can achieve faster analysis of small amount of samples with higher separation efficiency. These characteristics are suitable for the enantioseparation and this analytical method enables chiral separations to be performed in seconds. Since a prerequisite for achieving sufficient resolution and detectability in the chiral analyses is the application of appropriate detection methods for target enantiomers with no dead volume between a separation channel and a detection site, various detection schemes have been introduced in the MCE chiral analysis. In the early stage of the investigation of the MCE chiral analysis, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectrometry was mainly employed as a detection scheme. However, it is a drawback of LIF detection that most of analytes should be derivatized prior to analysis, which is not only labor-intensive and sometimes troublesome but strongly affects the chiral selectivity. Therefore, other detection schemes, e.g., UV absorption, electrochemical detection, conductometry, and so forth, have been also introduced in the MCE analysis of chiral compounds. This article gives an overview of original works done in the MCE chiral analysis with regard to approaches to improve resolution and sensitivity for enantiomers.