New Analytical Method for Cellulose Acetate Electrophoresis Using Terahertz Imaging

Abstract

We propose a new method of analyzing the results of cellulose acetate electrophoresis by terahertz imaging. To verify accuracy of terahertz imaging of cellulose acetate electrophoresis, we compared the images obtained by terahertz imaging with those obtained by the one-side staining method. To obtain accurate information about the distribution of medical molecules in cellulose acetate by terahertz imaging, owing to the low concentration, a suitable imaging spatial resolution is required to estimate the distribution accurately in the cellulose acetate membrane. Here, we have improved the spatial resolution by reducing the absorption of the diffusion of the terahertz signal from the sample surface. Using the terahertz imaging system, we obtained terahertz images of the cellulose acetate with a glycine sensitivity of 3.71 µg/mm2 and an L-methionine sensitivity of 6.22 µg/mm2. Comparison of the terahertz and staining images showed that the new imaging method using the terahertz imaging system has a good possibility for cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis analysis even for relatively low-concentration electrophoresis.