Use of nanomaterials in capillary and microchip electrophoresis

Abstract

This review gives an overview of different separation strategies with nanomaterials and their use in capillary electrophoresis (CE) and capillary electrochromatography, as well as in microchip electrophoresis, including metal and metal oxide nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, fullerene and polymer nanoparticles, as well as silica nanoparticles. The paper highlights the new developments and innovative applications of nanoparticles as pseudostationary phases or immobilized on the capillary surface for CE separation. The separation and characterization of target nanoparticles with different sizes by CE are reviewed likewise.

Recent advances in column coatings for capillary electrophoresis of proteins

“…In capillary and microchip electrophoresis, different type of nanomaterials (e.g., gold nanoparticles, metal-oxide nanoparticles, polymer nanoparticles, carbon nanomaterials) have been employed to coat the surface of the separation channels [9,[56][57][58]. Nanoparticles can enhance separation efficiency, selectivity and reproducibility due to their advantageous properties such as large surface-to-volume ratios and a wide variety of surface chemistry options (e.g., organofunctional groups such as alkyl, amine and carboxyl groups) that may provide additional interaction sites [56].…”

“…Nanoparticles can enhance separation efficiency, selectivity and reproducibility due to their advantageous properties such as large surface-to-volume ratios and a wide variety of surface chemistry options (e.g., organofunctional groups such as alkyl, amine and carboxyl groups) that may provide additional interaction sites [56]. Because of their size range, nanoparticles are exceptionally suitable for CE applications and can be used either as dynamic or permanent coatings if they meet the following criteria: 1) stable suspensions in a variety of CE background electrolytes; 2) desired selectivity in interaction with the analyte molecules; 3) charged but with different mobility that of the electroosmotic flow mobility; 4) matched mobility to the co-ions of the background electrolyte to alleviate peak broadening [59]; 5) small mass-transfer resistance; 6) no effect on detection efficiency; and 7) high surface area coverage [60].…”

Graphitic carbon nitride embedded hydrogels for enhanced gel electrophoresis

“…High surface-to-volume ratio of nanoparticles (NPs) has led to their usage in applications such as detection and separation of biomolecules [4,[6][7][8][9]. Various types of nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes [10], fullerenes [11], silica [12], latex [13], magnetic [14] and non-magnetic metal oxides [15], metal oxide semiconductor [15], silver [16], gold [17,18], ceria [4] , and polymer-based NPs have been used successfully for the separation purposes and also for coating in electrophoresis [19,20]. Use of nanomaterials in separation science has been recognized in electrophoresis [4] and capillary electrophoresis [21], capillary electrochromatography [22,23], microchip electrophoresis [24], and chromatography separations [25,26].…”

Amphiphilic silica nanoparticles as pseudostationary phase for capillary electrophoresis separation

“…Many scientists have focused on the potential conjunction of silica nanoparticles with separation science to optimize detection [2,3], facilitate separation of nanoparticles themselves [4][5][6] and dramatically improve resolution of target molecules [7][8][9]. Most applications for these purposes require that the utilized silica nanoparticles should possess high surface area and small particle size less than 100 nm to ensure high monodispersity.…”