SEPARATION OF NANOSTRUCTURED GOLD PARTICLES BY CAPILLARY-ZONE-ELECTROPHORESIS

The feasibility of employing capillary zone electrophoresis to separat e nanostructured gold particles was investigated. The optimal experime ntal conditions of rinsing procedure, type and concentration of cation ic surfactant, buffer concentration, and pH value were identified for the separations. Under the optimal conditions - included rinsing capil lary with 0.5 N NaOH, water, and buffer for 3 min in sequence, and run ning the experiment with 7.5 mM TTAB, 12.5 mM tetraborate, and pH 9.0 of buffer solution at 20 kV applied voltage - nearly resolved separati on (R-s = 1.0) of gold particles with mean diameter differences as sma ll as 1 nm was achieved.