Study of Electrohydrodynamic Phenomena during Purification of Proteins by Continuous Flow Electrophoresis

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Abstract
Continuous flow electrophoresis is a process that enables one to purify or to separate proteins on a preparative scale. Its performance depends on a number of transport phenomena that act together to spread the protein stream, which may cause a loss of resolution. This paper is devoted to the study of one of them, called electrohydrodynamics, which is due to the difference existing between the electrical properties of the protein sample and those of its surrounding fluid. An experimental study was performed by using a device that provides visualization of the sample stream inside the separation chamber by working with an alternating current which enables only the influence of electrohydrodynamic effects to be studied without any interference from the other transport phenomena, such as electroosmosis and electrophoretic migration. The experimental results are found to be in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions, which give the sample elongation under different operating conditions, such as residence time, conductivities, and electric field strength.