Abstract
The collaborative effects between an applied orthogonal electrical field and the internal structure of polymer gels in gel electrophoresis is studied by using microscopic-based electrophoretic transport models that then are upscaled via the format of electro kinetics-hydrodynamics (EKHD). The interplay of the electrical field and internal gel morphology could impact the separation of biomolecules that, because of similar chemical properties, are usually difficult to separate. In this study, we focus on an irregular pore geometry of the polymer-gel structure by using an axially varying pore (i.e., an axially divergent section) and an orthogonal (to the main flow of solutes) applied electrical field. The microscopic-based conservation of species equation is formulated for the standard case of electrophoresis of charged particles within a geometrical domain, i.e., a pore, and upscaled to obtain macroscopic-based diffusion and mobility coefficients. These coefficients are then used in the calculation of the optimal time of separation to study the effect of the varying parameters of the pore structure under different values of the electrical field. The results are qualitatively consistent with those reported, in the literature, by using computational-based approaches as well as with experiments also reported in the literature, previously. The study shows the important collaborative effects between the applied electrical field and the internal geometry of the polymer gels that could lead to improving biomolecule separation in gel electrophoresis.
Highlights
The collaborative effects between an applied orthogonal electrical field and the internal structure of polymer gels in gel electrophoresis is studied by using microscopic-based electrophoretic transport models that are upscaled via the format of electro kinetics-hydrodynamics (EKHD)
This study shows the important interplay among model scaling, pore morphology of the gel matrix, charge of the biomolecule, and the applied orthogonal electrical field in assessing or improving electrophoresis separations
Analytical expressions for effective transport parameters in order to estimate the optimal time of separation of two hypothetical species based on various parameters, including the angle of divergence, α, aspect ratio, γ, and dimensionless axial position, x, that characterize the pore geometry under analysis, have been computed
Summary
Biomacromolecules, in general, can often have similar physical or transport properties, i.e., electrophoretic mobility and/or diffusivity, causing the separation to become very challenging in certain cases [18]. Yariv and Dorfman [39] computed expressions for dispersion and effective velocity but only for very large and small Peclet number values None of these contributions, have reported any study of the role of the orthogonal electrical fields in conjunction with the characteristics of the pore or the separation domain nor have they shown any calculation of the optimal time of separation. In this contribution, and for the particular case of gelbased electrophoretic applications, attention is given to the analysis of orthogonal (The word “orthogonal” here implies perpendicular to the axial (varying) direction of the capillary channel as it was used in Oyanader and Arce [8].) applied electric fields to potentially enhance the separation. In addition to the previous work by Sauer et al [6] and Oyanader and Arce [8], Baldessari and Santiago’s [45] work suggests that further examining the role of applied orthogonal electrical fields in the separation of biomacromolecules in various systems is important
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