The relative importance of transport phenomena in recycling isoelectric focusing.

The various transport phenomena involved in recycling isoelectric focusing are analyzed for their contributions to band spreading so as to find ways of improving the resolution of this liquid-phase protein purification method. A numerical model is proposed that takes into account diffusion, electroosmosis and electrophoretic migration as a function of pH. The electrohydrodynamic effects have so far been neglected in these calculations. The results of these calculations are compared with experimental measurements performed in different chamber geometries, with a variety of proteins and under different operating conditions, always chosen to avoid flow instabilities. This comparison shows that the resolution of this process is greatly impaired if the electroosmotic slip velocity at the wall is not suppressed.