Chan Yick Chuen, Zohar Yitshak, Lee Yi-Kuen
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Electrophoresis. 2009 Sep;30(18):3242-9. doi: 10.1002/elps.200900127.
A study of the influences of embedding artificial structures in a microfluidic device for CE with a free buffer solution is presented. Compared with conventional slab-gel electrophoresis, three major additional effects on the overall system performance are identified when sub-micron pillar arrays are integrated into a standard CE microsystem. Since DNA molecules have to migrate in-between and interact with the pillars, pillar geometry is first demonstrated to have a direct impact on the DNA motion pattern. Electric field re-distribution is another inevitable outcome when features of sub-micron dimensions are placed inside a microchannel. This effect is verified by a numerical simulation tool. Furthermore, the integration of the closely packed sub-micron structures dramatically increases the surface to volume ratios in the microfluidic device and therefore generates a large EOF. The consequence of these additional influences implies a complexity in the measured DNA velocity and indicates that careful considerations have to be taken when these devices are used for DNA electrokinetics study or electrophoresis theory re-examination.
本文介绍了一项关于在采用游离缓冲溶液的毛细管电泳微流控装置中嵌入人工结构的影响的研究。与传统平板凝胶电泳相比，当将亚微米柱阵列集成到标准毛细管电泳微系统中时，可确定对整个系统性能有三个主要的附加影响。由于DNA分子必须在柱之间迁移并与柱相互作用，首先证明柱几何形状对DNA运动模式有直接影响。当亚微米尺寸的特征置于微通道内时，电场重新分布是另一个不可避免的结果。此效应通过数值模拟工具得到验证。此外，紧密排列的亚微米结构的集成显著增加了微流控装置中的表面积与体积比，因此产生了较大的电渗流。这些附加影响的结果意味着所测量的DNA速度具有复杂性，并表明在将这些装置用于DNA电动学研究或电泳理论重新检验时必须谨慎考虑。
