Scaling behavior in on-chip field-amplified sample stacking

Abstract

Field amplified sample stacking (FASS) uses differential electrophoretic velocity of analyte ions in the high-conductivity background electrolyte zone and low conductivity sample zone for increasing the analyte concentration. The stacking rate of analyte ions in FASS is limited by molecular diffusion and convective dispersion due to nonuniform electroosmotic flow (EOF). We present a theoretical scaling analysis of stacking dynamics in FASS and its validation with a large set of on-chip sample stacking experiments and numerical simulations. Through scaling analysis, we have identified two stacking regimes that are relevant for on-chip FASS, depending upon whether the broadening of the stacked peak is dominated by axial diffusion or convective dispersion. We show that these two regimes are characterized by distinct length and time scales, based on which we obtain simplified nondimensional relations for the temporal growth of peak concentration and width in FASS. We first verify the theoretical scaling behavior in diffusion- and convection-dominated regimes using numerical simulations. Thereafter, we show that the experimental data of temporal growth of peak concentration and width at varying electric fields, conductivity gradients, and EOF exhibit the theoretically predicted scaling behavior. The scaling behavior described in this work provides insights into the effect of varying experimental parameters, such as electric field, conductivity gradient, electroosmotic mobility, and electrophoretic mobility of the analyte on the dynamics of on-chip FASS.

Keywords: Dispersion; Field-amplified sample stacking; On-chip electrophoresis; Scaling analysis.