Capillary electrophoresis applied to polysaccharide characterization

Capillary electrophoresis is a consolidated analytical approach for the structural characterization of polysaccharide mono- and oligomer constituents, as demonstrated in this chapter, which surveys several applications of this technique on chemically and enzymatically degraded polysaccharides, covering the last 10 to 12 years Capillary electrophoresis is also demonstrated to be highly reliable for determination of polysaccharides in biological samples, as it analyzes quite complex matrices even without any pretreatment, a distinctive feature with respect to other separative strategies The versatility of this technique is clearly demonstrated by its potential in evaluating macromolecular features of polysaccharides, such as size (molecular weight, chain length), chain rigidity, charge density, and chemical modifications