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An exactly solvable Ogston model of gel electrophoresis IV: Sieving through periodic three‐dimensional gels
Author(s) -
Mercier JeanFrançois,
Slater Gary W.
Publication year - 1998
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/elps.1150191006
Subject(s) - analyte , electrophoresis , chemistry , chromatography , materials science , physics
In this article, we extend our recently developed lattice model of gel electrophoresis to periodic three‐dimensional gels made of either isolated obstacles or infinitely long fibers. Exact mobilites are calculated using a much improved numerical method that allows us to treat very large systems. A comparison of the exact mobilities and free available volumes indicates that the main assumption of the Ogston‐Morris‐Rodbard‐Chrambach model (OMRCM), which postulates that the mobility (μ) of charged particles is directly related to the fractional gel volume available to them, is not valid. However, a study of the gel concentration and analyte size dependence of the zero‐field mobility indicates that the OMRCM and the Ferguson plots can indeed be used to obtain useful, semi‐quantitative information about the gel properties. A procedure to study more realistic three‐dimensional gel systems is discussed.