Entropic trap array systems

We hope that this brief review has given the reader a general feeling of the development and application of CE in the separation of nucleic acids. With the advent of capillary array electrophoresis and microchip electrophoresis, as well as remarkable improvements in separation matrices, CE has become a standardized and cost-effective technique in the separation of nucleic acids. Novel thermo-responsive polymer solutions combine the merits of different monomers, and offer the possibility to fine-tune the desirable properties of polymer molecular architecture and chemical composition. Artificial entropic trapping systems obviate the use of viscous polymer solutions, and even offer fast, unattended, miniaturized, and multiplexed platforms. Optimizing the geometry of these electrophoretic systems to both increase the separation and reduce the diffusion (band broadening) is the main topic for future research. 

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