This is a very useful, short book on the fundamentals of capillary electrophoresis (CE). It is an edited volume, comprising 11 chapters and one appendix on troubleshooting the equipment used in the title field. The book is clearly intended to serve as a resource for scientists who will be making extensive use of CE in their work, rather than as a general introduction to the topic. As is essential in this very rapidly developing area, the references are from the recent literature. The 11 chapters are grouped under three division heads: Background Concepts, Modes of Capillary Electrophoresis, and Applications. The chapters are, in order of appearance: Factors Affecting the Performance of CE Separations, Detection Methods in CE, Quantitative Aspects, Free Solution CE, Capillary Gel Electrophoresis, Fundamentals of Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary Chromatography, Isoelectric Focusing in Capillaries, CE in Entangled Polymer Solutions, CE Separations of Peptides, Protein Analysis by CE, and Separation of Small Molecules by High Performance CE
This book should be particularly useful to scientists with a background in gas or liquid chromatography, since a great deal of general prior knowledge about separations in a differential migration format is assumed. The individual chapters are all quite good and authoritative. Furthermore, the first chapter of the book, contributed by one of the editors, is an excellent well-written overview of the physics involved in CE, especially electroosmosis, the effects of Joule heating, and other factors which cause zone dispersion. However, this is not a good introductory chapter in that it assumes that the reader is already familiar with the general concepts of electrophoresis. These concepts are presented in Chapter 4 on Free-Solution Electrophoresis, which would be a better introduction to CE from a pedagogical viewpoint.