Electrical migration in convective electrophoresis: modelling and membrane separation of bovum serum albumin (BSA) and cytochrome c

Abstract

The development of a continuous convective electrophoresis method for the separation of proteins is presented. The technique is based on opposing a convective flow across a porous membrane to electrical migration and diffusion. The Nernst–Planck equations describing protein transfer are solved and the effect of charge on the protein molecule is shown to be of great importance for achieving high selectivity ratios. From simulations of separation processes based on the solution of the migration, diffusion and convection problem, it is shown that the proposed technique can become a new powerful electro-assisted separation process. The experimental results were in good agreement with the predictions of the mathematical model.