title: Ultrahigh-voltage capillary zone electrophoresis.
abstract: An ultrahigh-voltage capillary electrophoresis system was built to demonstrate the possibility of extending the applied potential and thus the separation power of capillary electrophoresis. A commercial 30-kV power supply was extensively modified in order to provide electrical potentials up to 120 kV. A unique electrical shielding system was developed to prevent capillary breakdown and corona or spark discharges. Electrophoretic studies using a mixture of peptide standards, as well as a complex mixture of peptides obtained from a protein digest, showed that the numbers of theoretical plates achieved increase linearly with applied voltage. Theoretical plate counts ranging from 2.7 to 6.1 million plates were obtained for peptides in a separation done at 120 kV. Resolution also increased with the square root of applied voltage, as predicted by theory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Hutterer
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jorgenson