Microfluidic devices electrophoretic separations

Recently Allbritton and Li coated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channels with BP [36]. Upon irradiation in the presence of a monomer solution, they were able to graft poly(acrylic acid) and poly(ethylene glycol) monomethoxyl acrylate to the interior walls of the channels. This is a significant achievement since the device did not require disassembly in order to modify the channel walls. The electrophoretic separation of the modified channels was different from the native channels. This technique holds particular promise for the microfluidic separations commimity. 

S. Ferko, V. A. VanderNoot, J. A. A. West, R. Crocker, B. Wiedenman, D. Yee, and J. A. Fruetel, Hand-Held Microanalytical Instrument for Chip-Based Electrophoretic Separations of Proteins, Anal. Chem. 2005, 77, 435 J. G. E. Gardeniers and A. van den Berg, Lab-on-a-Chip Systems for Biomedical and Environmental Monitoring, Anal. Bioanal. Chem 2004,378, 1700 J. C. McDonald and G. M. Whitesides, Poly(dimethylsiloxane) as a Material for Fabricating Microfluidic Devices, Acc. Chem. Res. 2002,35, 491 Y. Huang,... 

As shown throughout this chapter, CE is a very versatile and powerful separation technique that has proven useful in subcellular analyses. As in all applications of CE, a trend for subcellular analysis is increasing throughput by using microfluidic devices to reduce separation times. This was recently demonstrated by analyzing fluorescently labeled mitochondria, for the first time, on a microfluidic chip. The analysis allowed a fivefold reduction in analysis time, from 20 to 4 min. To realize the full potential of CE, advances in electrophoretic models must also be made. Models that can accurately predict electrophoretic mobility, as well as explain observed differences, will allow this information to be used more effectively. Finally, as the information that can be gleaned from an electrophoretic... 

In the past 15 years, the use of microfluidic devices for chemical analysis has increased tremendously. Indeed, a broad range of chromatographic and electrophoretic separation methods have been implemented in microchips. However, for widespread utilization of microfabricated devices in analysis applications, particularly in the field of proteomics, further efforts are needed to develop simple fabrication techniques that achieve functional integration of multiple tasks in a single device. " In this section, we describe the fabrication of microdevices using sacrificial materials and discuss some of the advantages of this approach over conventional microfabrication methods. 

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