Novel polyamine coating providing non-covalent deactivation and reversed electroosmotic flow of fused-silica capillaries for capillary electrophoresis

A new polycationic coating for use in capillary electrophoresis has been developed that enables chemical modification of fused-silica capillary surfaces for analysis of compounds like basic proteins. The cationic polyamine, containing short aliphatic blocks of combined 2 and 3-carbon length, was physically adsorbed onto the negatively charged fused-silica surface through ionic interaction by flushing the capillary with a polyamine solution, followed by a self-stabilization step. The polyamine coated capillaries generated an anodal electroosmotic flow that was independent of pH in the investigated range of pH 4-8. The capillary performance was demonstrated by fast separations of basic proteins with peak efficiencies in the range of 265 000-584 000 plates. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.