CHANNEL THICKNESS VARIATIONS COULD DEGRADE RESOLUTION IN ELECTROPHORESIS

Variations in the lateral dimensions of capillaries and ultrathin gels along their length could lead to a distortion of the sample zone beca use charged particles traveling near the wall must travel a longer dis tance under a smaller field than particles traveling along the centerl ine. The size of the effect is computed by solving Laplace's equation for the potential everywhere in a conducting slab with a discontinuity in the lateral dimensions and integrating the travel time along diffe rent streamlines.