Nonaqueous capillary gel electrophoretic analysis of metal nanoclusters in polymeric–DMSO–Li⁺ systems

Abstract

In this study, we investigated a combination of nonaqueous CE with capillary gel electrophoresis to achieve highly efficient analysis of metal nanoclusters. In the nonaqueous capillary gel electrophoresis (NACGE), PVA and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose were dissolved in DMSO. In addition, to enhance the entanglement of the polymer chains, Li+ ions were also added. By employing the PVA‒DMSO‒Li+ solution, we studied the effects of the molecular weight, the degree of hydrolysis, and the concentration of the polymers and Li+ on the separation. As a result, good separations of standard mononuclear metal complexes and tetrairon nanoclusters were achieved by NACGE.

LVSEP Analysis of Cationic Analytes in Non-Aqueous Media on Cationic Polymer-Coated Channel Microchips

“…We investigated the NACE-LVSEP analyses of HA using DMSO as a solvent, which has been confirmed to be useful in NACGE [21,22]. With regard to the non-aqueous BGS, phosphoric acid was added to apply positive charges both onto the channel surfaces and to HA in the DMSO medium.…”

“…By the addition of polymers, e.g., PVA and (hydroxypropyl)methyl cellulose (HPMC), and lithium ions into non-aqueous solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), polymer-gel structure is formed through electrostatic interactions between hydroxyl groups on the polymer chains and Li + . Both PVAand HPMC-based gel matrix formed in DMSO has been demonstrated to improve the separation performance of metal complexes and metal nanoclusters in NACGE [21,22]. Based on above findings, in the present study, we investigated the fundamental analytical performances of the MCE-LVSEP analysis of cationic species in non-aqueous media.…”

“…On the other hand, our research group has reported the analysis of metal complexes by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) [11] and non-aqueous capillary gel electrophoresis (NACGE) [21,22]. NACE is the electrophoretic analysis by employing non-aqueous solvents (organic solvents) as a background solution (BGS).…”