Pulsed-field capillary electrophoresis: optimizing separation parameters with model mixtures of sulfonated polystyrenes.

The electrophoretic transport of high molecular weight charged solutes, both flexible and stiff polymers, has been studied by capillary electrophoresis under constant-field and pulsed-field conditions. Sulfonated polystyrenes were used as model solutes in different entangled polymer solutions. First, changes of the end-to-end distance vectors of flexible polymers were examined through the mobility/potential-gradient curves. Under pulsed-field conditions, the influence of different pulse shapes, frequencies, and amplitudes of forward and backward pulses on the electrophoretic mobilities of model solutes was studied. Resolution of the mixture components was strongly affected by changes in frequency of both sine-wave and square-wave pulses. The experimental results obtained under pulse-field conditions are roughly in agreement with the existing theories of electrophoretic transport.