Application of Pluronic copolymer liquid crystals for the capillary electrophoretic separation of collagen type I cyanogen bromide fragments

A capillary electrophoretic method exploiting the properties of Pluronic co polymer liquid crystals (F127) was developed for the separation of collagen cyanogen bromide (CNBr) fragments. The separations obtained were at least comparable (if not better) to those obtained by other methods applicable to this category of compounds. In the optimized version a bare silica capilla ry [47 cm (40 cm to the detector)x75 mu m I.D.] was used with 10 mM Tris an d 75 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5) containing 7.5% Pluronic F127 copolymer. The separation mechanism which involves both the molecular sieving and surf actant properties of the Pluronic F127 gel phase is discussed. (C) 2000 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.