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Free‐flow zone electrophoresis: A novel approach and scale‐up for preparative protein separation
Author(s) -
Poggel Martin,
Melin Thomas
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/1522-2683()22:6<1008::aid-elps1008>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - joule heating , dimension (graph theory) , electric field , flow (mathematics) , joule (programming language) , electrophoresis , scale (ratio) , bovine serum albumin , analytical chemistry (journal) , mechanics , throughput , volume (thermodynamics) , chemistry , chromatography , materials science , thermodynamics , computer science , physics , mathematics , power (physics) , composite material , pure mathematics , wireless , telecommunications , quantum mechanics
Different continuously working free‐flow zone electrophoresis (FFZE) chambers have already been developed [1, 2]. All of them deal with the problem of distinctive Joule heating. The resulting temperature gradients cause an unstable density field which leads to thermal convection and thus to an intermixing of the different fractions within the chamber. The most promising and simple approach to stabilize the flow is to build chambers with one very small dimension ( e.g., h = 0.5 mm) to assure efficient heat withdrawal. This in turn presents substantial disadvantages, namely limited throughput and restricted scale‐up potential. The novel approach combines a simplified design and assembly with the possibility of straightforward scale‐up. It still operates with one small dimension ( d = 1–2 mm) to handle the Joule heating. Here, however, not the dimension perpendicular to the electric field but the dimension parallel to the electric field (separation distance) is chosen as the smallest dimension. The efficiency of the new device is shown by the separation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and cytochrome c with an overall protein throughput of up to 1.1 g/h, using a cell with a separation volume of less than 20 mL.