An easy, simple, and highly efficient on-line preconcentration method for acidic compounds in capillary electrophoresis was investigated. It combined two on-line concentration techniques, field-amplified sample injection (FASI) and sweeping. A low-pH (2.5) background electrolyte was used to suppress the electroosmotic flow (EOF), obviating the need of a coated capillary, as well as to neutralize the weakly acidic analytes. After injection of a plug of water inside the separation capillary, negative voltage was applied to initialize FASI for a much longer time than usual. The anions experienced a high electric field and moved quickly to the boundary of the water and the low-pH nonmicellar electrolyte. When the anions encountered the low-pH electrolyte, they were neutralized and a focused sample zone was formed. Then both inlet and outlet vials were changed to those Containing the lowp Hmicellar background electrolyte. As negative voltage was applied, the anionic micelles moved into the capillary, and sweeping and separation began. The novelty in the present procedure is that a low-pH buffer is used to suppress the EOF and also the ionization of the analytes, without need of any other additives or use of a coated capillary. This method afforded 100 000-fold improvement in peak heights for some phenoxy acidic herbicides. The detection limits for these compounds could be low as 100pg/mL.