Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry Approaches for Characterization of the Protein and Metabolite Corona Acquired by Nanomaterials
Published on: October 27, 2020
On-line enhancement and separation of nanoparticles using capillary electrophoresis
Kuei-Hua Lin1, Tieh-Chi Chu, Fu-Ken Liu
1Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
Abstract:
We describe a rapid, simple, and highly efficient capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based method for the analysis of nanoparticles (NPs). In this study, we used the reversed electrode polarity stacking mode (REPSM) of CE to assess the feasibility of enhancing the detection of Au NPs and Au/Ag NPs, optimizing parameters such as the length of time for which the REPSM was applied, the concentrations of the buffer and the sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) surfactant, and the pH. Under the optimized on-line enhancement conditions [buffer: SDS (40 mM) and 3-cyclohexylamino-1-propanesulfonic acid (CAPS; 10 mM) at pH 10.0; applied voltage: 20 kV; REPSM applied for 24s], the detection limits of the Au NPs and Au/Ag NPs increased by ca. 30- and 140-fold, respectively. In addition, when the NPs were subjected to on-line enhancement and separation by CE using diode array detection (DAD), this approach allowed chemical characterization of the NP species. Our results suggest that such CE analyses will be useful for accelerating the rates of fabrication and characterization of future nanomaterials.
Related Concept Videos
Capillary Electrophoresis: Applications
Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) separates ionic components based on their electrophoretic mobility. It has been used to separate proteins, amino acids,...
Electrophoresis: Overview
There...
Capillary Electrophoresis: Instrumentation
Ion-Exchange Chromatography
Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis
The first dimension separation uses the isoelectric focusing or IEF technique performed on immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strips that separate proteins according to their isoelectric points.
Biological samples, such as cells...
Size-Exclusion Chromatography
Silica particles offer advantages such as rigidity,...
