Acid-base equilibria of polyvalent electrolytes and theoretical description of polyelectrolyte behavior in electrokinetic separations

The problem of the theoretical description of the dissociation of polyvalen t electrolytes is considered. It is shown that the traditional model which assumes some constant microstate mobility values may have limited applicati ons, since for each microstate the rate of conversion into other states is strongly dependent on pH and thus it may often become comparable with the c haracteristic times of other important processes (ionic atmosphere relaxati on, biopolymer acceleration by electric field). The question of correct mod elling of the electrophoretic flux, electrophoretic mobility and conductivi ty is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.