Portable capillary electrophoresis as a green analytical technology

Most of the publications in green analytical chemistry (GAC) deal with the benign solvents and procedures and all aspects of measures of the greenness of certain methods. The equally important instrumentation aspects in GAC have received much less attention. Instruments in contemporary analytical chemistry have a significant footprint. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a technology that offers an instrument whose ecological footprint could be much less than that of other popular analytical technologies. This paper describes the GAC features of CE with many examples. Those green features of CE include the capability of miniaturization and, thus, the possibility of making portable instruments that can be used in situ. In recent years, many groups have demonstrated increasing interest in developing simple, robust, and inexpensive portable CE instruments. This paper will address aspects of CE associated with portability, open access instrumentation, and prospects of CE for citizen science. The extensive use of items provided by the electronic and computer industry contributes to this trend. [Display omitted] •Instruments in contemporary analytical chemistry have a significant ecological footprint.•Capillary electrophoresis (CE)is a technology with a small ecological footprint.•CE is a promising technology for citizen science due to its simplicity and the wide availability of consumer electronics.