A miniaturized analytical system for separating and detecting inorganic explosive residues, based on the coupling of a micromachined capillary electrophoresis (CE) chip with a contactless conductivity detector is described. The low electroosmotic flow (EOF) of the poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) chip material facilitates the rapid switching between analyses of cations and anions using the same microchannel and run buffer (and without an EOF modifier), and hence offers rapid (<1 min) measurement of ...