Effect of carrier ionic strength in microscale cyclical electrical field-flow fractionation.

Recent work with cyclical electrical field-flow fractionation systems has shown promise for the technique as a separation and analysis tool, but little is understood about how the carrier composition in the system affects its capabilities. The electrical properties of microscale CyElFFF systems change when the carrier ionic conditions are altered, and it is well known that the effects of increasing ionic strength carriers on retention in normal ElFFF systems are severe. Specifically, retention levels fall significantly. Accordingly, this work seeks to understand the effect that increasing carrier ionic strength in CyElFFF has on nanoparticle retention in the channels. The retention of polystyrene particles in the CyElFFF microsystem is reported at various ionic strengths of ammonium carbonate and at a variety of pH levels. The experiments are compared to the theory of CyElFFF available in the literature. The results indicate that the ionic strength of the carrier has a significant impact on retention and that high ionic strength carrier solutions lead to poor performance of the CyElFFF system. These results have significant impact on the possible uses of the technique and its applications, especially in the biomedical arena.