Non-Linear Stacking Effects in Microfluidic Temperature Gradient Focusing Available to Purchase

Temperature gradient focusing (TGF) is a promising type of field gradient focusing that simultaneously concentrates and separates charged species according to their electrophoretic mobilities. TGF focuses samples by balancing local electrophoretic and advective fluxes for each analyte species. The technique utilizes buffers whose ionic strength vary with temperature to induce conductivity gradients appropriate for this electrophoretic focusing. In most cases, the contribution of the focused species to the ionic strength is negligible, and linear focusing is observed. In this work, we investigate experimentally non-linear stacking effects that occur when the conductivity of the stacked sample approaches that of the background buffer.