Simultaneous separation of basic and acidic proteins using 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium‐based ion liquid as dynamic coating and background electrolyte in capillary electrophoresis

Abstract

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquids (1B-3MI-TFB ILs) were employed as a coating material and BGE in CE for simultaneous separation of basic and acidic proteins such as lysozyme, cytochrome C, ribonuclease A, albumin, and alpha-lactalbumin. 1B-3MI-TFB ILs effectively reversed the surface charges on the capillary inner surface, preventing the adsorption of positively charged proteins onto the silica surface, as well as associated with proteins, thus benefiting the separation efficiencies and reproducibility. Consequently, simultaneous baseline separation of five proteins was achieved within 14 min by using 10 mM of 1B-3MI-TFB ILs as dynamic coating and the only running electrolyte at the voltage of +20 kV. The proposed coating technique is simple, less time-consuming, reproducible, and also stable enough for proteins separation without the need of additives. Symmetrical peaks with efficiencies up to 670,000 plates/m were obtained. Recoveries of proteins with RSD (for migration times) of 0.23-0.42% (run-to-run) and 2.5-3.8% (day-to-day) were achieved, respectively. The applicability of the proposed method in proteins separation was evaluated by the separation of egg white samples.