Premium
Hydrodynamic injection with pneumatic valving for microchip electrophoresis with total analyte utilization
Author(s) -
Sun Xuefei,
Kelly Ryan T.,
Danielson William F.,
Agrawal Nitin,
Tang Keqi,
Smith Richard D.
Publication year - 2011
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.201000522
Subject(s) - analyte , chromatography , electrophoresis , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science
A novel hydrodynamic injector that is directly controlled by a pneumatic valve has been developed for reproducible microchip CE separations. The PDMS devices used for the evaluation comprise a separation channel, a side channel for sample introduction, and a pneumatic valve aligned at the intersection of the channels. A low pressure (≤3 psi) applied to the sample reservoir is sufficient to drive sample into the separation channel. The rapidly actuated pneumatic valve enables injection of discrete sample plugs as small as ∼100 pL for CE separation. The injection volume can be easily controlled by adjusting the intersection geometry, the solution back pressure, and the valve actuation time. Sample injection could be reliably operated at different frequencies (<0.1 Hz to >2 Hz) with good reproducibility (peak height relative standard deviation ≤3.6%) and no sampling biases associated with the conventional electrokinetic injections. The separation channel was dynamically coated with a cationic polymer, and FITC‐labeled amino acids were employed to evaluate the CE separation. Highly efficient (≥7.0×10 3 theoretical plates for the ∼2.4‐cm‐long channel) and reproducible CE separations were obtained. The demonstrated method has numerous advantages compared with the conventional techniques, including repeatable and unbiased injections, little sample waste, high duty cycle, controllable injected sample volume, and fewer electrodes with no need for voltage switching. The prospects of implementing this injection method for coupling multidimensional separations for multiplexing CE separations and for sample‐limited bioanalyses are discussed.