Evaluation of the performance of single-walled carbon nanohorns in capillary electrophoresis.

This paper describes for the first time the use of single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) as pseudostationary and stationary phases for EKC and CEC, respectively, taking advantage of their characteristic features, such as conical-end termination, formation of spherical assemblies dahlia-flower like superstructure and easy functionalization. The use of SWNHs as pseudostationary phase for EKC required the study of their dispersion in different surfactants as well as their compatibility with the electrophoretic system. The carboxylation and subsequent immobilization of carboxylated SWNHs in fused-silica capillary to obtain useful, reproducible and stable stationary phases for CEC has also been investigated, with promising results. The electrophoretic separations obtained for water-soluble vitamins in both modalities (EKC and CEC) have been systematically compared with those obtained with single-walled carbon nanotubes.