Improvement of heat dissipation in agarose gel electrophoresis by metal oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Joule heating is a primary limitation in the slab gel electrophoresis which is a gold standard method in biochemistry and biotechnology. In this paper, we introduced an innovative new class of heat transfer nanocomposite engineered by inclusion of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) in conventional separation medium (gel). The nanocomposite exhibits high thermal conductivity compared to gel itself. The results suggest a unique correlation between average particle size and thermal conductivity of metal oxide NPs with resolution improvement of the separation, i.e. reduction in Joule heating. Ceria, zirconia, tungsten oxide, and lanthania NPs were loaded into the agarose gel separately and used as a separation medium for gel electrophoresis. Among the NPs, ceria with the smallest size (5.2 nm) and highest thermal conductivity (17 W m -1 K -1 ) presented a better performance in reduction of Joule heating. By loading 0.3 % (m/v) ceria, zirconia, and tungsten oxide NPs into the agarose gel at 25 °C , the thermal conductivity of gel increased 79, 78, and 78 %, and resulted in 22, 18, and 14 % reduction in Joule heating (230 V), respectively. The overall separation efficiency and resolution increased for agarose/zirconia gel as compared with those of pure agarose gel. For example, the separation efficiency of 70 and 80 (bp) peaks increased 260 and 165 %, respectively. Also, the resolution increased from 1.65 for pure agarose gel to 6.32 for agarose/zirconia gel.

Paper-Based Electrophoretic Bioassay: Biosensing in Whole Blood Operating via Smartphone

“…Unexpected particle’s mobility or band’s distortion is commonly observed upon heat generation during gel electrophoresis . This phenomenon is explained by Joule’s law and the generalized power equation where ( P ) is the power converted from electrical energy to thermal energy, ( V ) is the voltage applied, and ( R ) is the resistance to current .…”

“…[19][20][21] Unexpected particle's mobility or band's distortion is commonly observed upon heat generation during gel electrophoresis. 22 This phenomenon is explained by Joule's law and the generalized power equation:…”

Controlling Dispersion during Single-Cell Polyacrylamide-Gel Electrophoresis in Open Microfluidic Devices

“…In macroscale PAGE, the composition of the separation buffer has been tuned to reduce the conductivity and thus reduce Joule heating. − However, in scPAGE, the buffer composition is constrained by demands that the reagent complete multiple functionalities: cell lysis, protein denaturation, protein solubilization, and PAGE. The need for ionic components means that a design with low conductivity is not feasible.…”

Hydrogels in Electrophoresis: Applications and Advances

“…Ultrathin SGE 24 and miniature SGE devices have been developed with considerably improved separation performance. Hydrogels doping with nanomaterial, such as ceria nanoparticles (NPs), 25 tungsten oxide NPs, 26 TiO2, 27 carbon nanotubes (CNT), 28 polymer NPs, 29 etc., also have been demonstrated to be able to improve the separation performance by changing the physical characteristics of the original gels. The addition of a proper amount of ceria NPs may increase the thermal conductivity (81%) of the original agarose gel.…”