Yoctomole detection limit by laser-induced fluorescence in capillary electrophoresis.

Laser-induced fluorescence detection in a sheath flow cuvette is the most sensitive method of detecting fluorescent molecules for capillary electrophoresis. This manuscript demonstrates the detection of 50 yoctomoles (1 yoctomole = 1 ymol = 1 x 10(-24) mol) of rhodamine 6G. A 1-mW He-Ne laser (lambda = 543.5 nm) was used as the excitation source. This detection limit is a 10 times improvement compared to the previous state-of-the-art detection limit in separation science.