Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Electrophoretic Separation of Proteins
Published on: June 12, 2008
Theory of electrophoretic mobility of a polyelectrolyte in semidilute solutions of neutral polymers
1Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003, USA.
Abstract:
An explicit formula is derived for the electrophoretic mobility of a polyelectrolyte molecule in a semidilute solution of neutral polymers in terms of the molecular weight N of a polyelectrolyte, concentration c of neutral polymers, Debye length and solvent quality. The nature of the crossover between different regimes, as c, N, and the salt concentration are varied, is presented. The calculations show that one progressively enters into regimes of no-separation, separation, and no-separation in the electrophoresis of polyelectrolytes as c is increased. If c is very high, one returns to the mechanism of separation in gel electrophoresis.
Related Concept Videos
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...
Electrophoresis: Overview
There...
Capillary Electrophoresis: Applications
Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) separates ionic components based on their electrophoretic mobility. It has been used to separate proteins, amino acids,...
The Debye–Hückel Theory of Electrolyte Solutions
Theory of Strong Electrolytes
The Colloidal State

