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Nafion membrane electrophoresis with direct and simplified end‐column pulse electrochemical detection of amino acids
Author(s) -
Fang Cheng,
Wu Bingliang,
Zhou Xingyao
Publication year - 2004
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.200305740
Subject(s) - nafion , electrophoresis , chromatography , electrode , membrane , analytical chemistry (journal) , detection limit , chemistry , electrochemistry , gel electrophoresis , biochemistry
A novel electrophoresis technique, in which the separation column was replaced by a strip of Nafion membrane (5.0 cm×0.20 mm×0.25 mm), was developed for the separation of an amino acid mixture (glycine, asparic acid and lysine), followed by quadruple‐pulse electrochemical detection. Nafion membrane contains hydrophilic pores (10–20 Å and 50–60 Å in size) acting as very narrow electrophoresis channels. The fixed‐charge sites (‐SO 3 − ) on the hydrophilic pore surface provide a strong charged background. A platinum disk electrode (0.90 mm inner diameter) was employed as the detection electrode and the electrophoresis cathode was used as the quasi‐reference and counter electrode for the end‐column electrochemical detector, without decoupler. Under optimized conditions the mixture of amino acids could be separated at a voltage of only 90 V with a detection limit of 10 −7 M , indicating that Nafion membrane electrophoresis is a potentially attractive technique for the separation of small organic molecules or ions.