Portable CE system with contactless conductivity detection in an injection molded polymer chip for on-site food analysis

We present a compact portable chip-based capillary electrophoresis system that employs capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D) operating at 4 MHz as an alternative detection method compared to the commonly used optical detection employing laser-induced fluorescence. The disposable chip for this system is fabricated out of PMMA using injection molding; the electrodes are screen-printed or thin-film electrodes. The system allows the measurement of small ions like Li, Na, K typically present in foodstuff like milk and mineral water as well as acids in wine.