Polyelectrolyte coatings for microchip capillary electrophoresis.

In chip-based electrophoretic analysis of biomolecules, chemical modification of the microchannel is widely employed to reduce or eliminate the analyte-wall interactions and alter electroosmotic flow (EOF) in the microchannel. A stable polyelectrolyte multilayer coating is one common way to regulate or eliminate EOF and prevent analyte adsorption for the rapid, efficient separation of biomolecules within microchannels. A wide variety of polyelectrolytes have been used as coatings. This chapter deals with how to coat microchips with polyelectrolytes and the expected results using polybrene and dextran sulfate as models. The technique presented here is generally applicable to any polyelectrolyte.