Photonic crystal fibres as efficient separation component in capillary electrophoresis

Telecommunication developments are leading to original and new fibre designs which indeed are being used in a huge variety of fields. In this manuscript we show that Photonic Crystal Fibres (PCFs) can be used as efficient chemical separation devices in commercial capillary electrophoresis (CE) equipment. A comparison of conventional capillaries, PCFs and new devices inspired on PCFs named Smart Micro-Structured Capillaries (SMSCs) is made. Results showed the usefulness and efficiency of these physical supports in CE through the detection of fluorescein. In addition, some considerations to take into account for SMSCs manufacturing are discussed. Further work should allow coupling the separation advantages achieved by these elements with the wide variety of detection techniques available in fibre-optics.