Temperature effects in capillary electrophoresis. 1: Internal capillary temperature and effect upon performance

Summary In isothermal CE the migration velocity of analytes and the number of theoretical plates delivered are expected to be proportional to the field strength. In reality ohmic heating of the capillary causes distortions: the migration velocity increases more rapidly while the plate count increases less rapidly, and may even fall at high values of the field. These distortions are worse the larger the bore of the capillary and the higher the concentration of buffer. A detailed investigation of these effects using capillaries cooled by natural convection has confirmed that self heating of the capillary is indeed largely responsible. The extent of self heating has been determined by three independent methods and to a first approximation is proportional to the power dissipation in the capillary. Decreasing viscosity with temperature is responsible for the nonlinearity of the dependence of velocity upon field strength while increase in the diffusion coefficient of analytes is responsible for the poorer than expected performance at high field strengths.