power supply ~ I s e p a r a t i o n t r o u g h 1 c a r r i e r e l e c t r o l y t e carrier Non steady-states in zone electrophoresis
383-Description and detection of moving sample zones in zone electrophoresis: Zone spreading due to the sample as a necessary discontinuous element e l e c t r o l y t e I 1 sample ~" " " " " " " " l i i This paper deals with the description and detection of moving sample zones in free zone electrophoresis. It is shown that the shape of a sample zone never reaches a steady-state. However, either the front or the rear boundary ofthe sample zones, but not both, can represent steady-state concentration distributions with decreasing peak heights. This results in an unsymmetrical broadening of the moving zones. With a multichannel detection device, consisting of 25 5 equidistant detectors along the separation trough, asymmetric electric field distributions of the sample components are measured. These are shown to agree with theoretical predictions, made by a model based on migration only. This clarifies the fact that in zone electrophoresis migrational dispersion due to the applied electric field is usually much larger than diffusional spreading. a)