title: Free solution electrophoresis of homopolyelectrolytes.
abstract: We investigate the behavior of single polyelectrolytes in multivalent salt solutions under the action of electric fields through computer simulations. The chain is unfolded in a strong electric field and aligned parallel to the field direction, and the chain size shows a sigmoidal transition. The unfolding electric field E* depends on the salt concentration and scales as V (-1/2) with V being the ellipsoidal volume occupied by the chain. The magnitude of the electrophoretic mobility of chain drastically increases during the unfolding. The fact that E* depends on the chain length provides a plausible mechanism to separate long charged homopolymers by size in free solution electrophoresis via the unfolding transition of globule polyelectrolytes condensed by multivalent salt.
authors.forename: Pai-Yi
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Kun-Mao
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D004573:Electrolytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D004586:Electrophoresis; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions
chemical_list: D004573:Electrolytes; D011108:Polymers; D012996:Solutions