The Pluronic polyol F127, PEO99PPO69PEO99 (PEO and PPO being poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide), respectively) has the potential to be used as an effective separation medium in capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the separation of biomacromolecules such as DNA fragments and proteins. Static light scattering (SLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) were used to characterize the solution properties and the microstructures of F127 in the same electrophoresis buffer used in CE. In the dilute solution region, F127 in CE buffer forms micelles similar to that in water. At high solution concentrations, micelles tend to pack into some crystalline forms with relatively well-structured PPO centers. By using a combination of SANS and SAXS results, we are able to conclusively determine the gellike structure to have a facecentered cubic lattice. The effects of solvent, polymer concentration, temperature, and sample preparation procedure on the gel structure were studied. In the gellike region the aggregation number and also the micellar size are not sensitive to both the concentration change and the temperature change. The results of DNA electrophoretic migration in F127 gels also support these findings.

The viscosity-adjustable property of F127 block copolymer PEO99PPO69PEO99, PEO and PPO being poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide), respectively, was found to be useful for the development of automated capillary electrophoresis (CE). The polymer solution can form a gel-like structure with sieving ability and can also serve as a dynamic coating material, thereby effectively suppressing the electroosmotic flow induced by the ionization of the silanol group on the quartz capillary inner wall. When applied to CE as a separation medium, F127 block copolymer can provide the advantages of high separation resolution, easy injection and replacement of the triblock copolymer solution and convenient capillary column treatment. High reproducibility of DNA electrophoretic migration time in CE by replenishing F127 solution in acid-washed capillary tubings can be achieved. The relative standard deviation of the DNA migration time is less than 2%. In the investigation of F127 concentration and temperature effects on the performance of DNA separation in CE, we have found that the DNA electrophoretic migration behavior in the F127 gel-like solution cannot be described by any one of the existing models.

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