Zwitterionic surfactant as an additive for efficient electrophoretic separation of easily absorbed rhodamine dyes on plastic microchips

Plastic microchips possess the advantages of easy fabrication and low-cost, but their surface proper-ties are frequently incompatible with electrophoretic separation without proper surface modification. Meanwhile, the separation microchannels on typical microchips are usually only a few centimeters long, the pressurized flow may significantly affect the electrophoretic separation if their inner diam-eters (id) are relatively larger (approximately > 50 mu m), viscous separation medium is therefore re-quired for efficient separation. Herein, a zwitterionic surfactant, N-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethyl-3-ammonio-1-propane sulfonate (HDAPS), was used as a multifunctional additive to inhibit the analyte adsorption, improve the surface status, control Joule heating and modulate the resolution on cyclic olefin copoly-mer microchips with 80 mu m id, 5 cm long separation microchannels, eliminating the necessity of vis-cous polymeric additives. The effectiveness of HDAPS was compared with an ionic polymeric additive, poly(diallydimethylammonium chloride). The streaming potential and electroosmotic flow measurements indicated an effective inhibition of the adsorption of rhodamine B and a stable negative surface charge with zwitterionic HDAPS. Using 15 mmol/L HDAPS, 40% (v/v) methanol, and 10 mmol/L boric acid (pH 3.2) as the running buffer, rapid separation of four rhodamines was achieved within 90 s under a sepa-ration electric field of 520 V/cm. The theoretical plate numbers were in a range of 5.0x105-6.9x105/m. The relative standard deviations were no more than 0.9% for retention time and 1.5% for peak area. The proposed system was verified by the determination of rhodamines in eyeshadow and wolfberry, with standard recoveries in a range of 98.2%-101.4%.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Plastic microchips are advantageous in terms of easy fabrication and low cost, but their surface properties often require modification for electrophoretic separation. Additionally, the short length and relatively larger inner diameters of microchannels on typical microchips may affect the separation process. In this study, a zwitterionic surfactant, HDAPS, was used as a multifunctional additive to improve surface properties and enhance separation performance without the need for viscous polymeric additives. Experimental results showed effective inhibition of analyte adsorption and stable negative surface charge with HDAPS. Rapid separation of rhodamines was achieved within 90 seconds using the proposed system, with high theoretical plate numbers and low deviations in retention time and peak area. The system was verified by detecting rhodamines in eyeshadow and wolfberry. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.