Paper electrophoresis with surface-enhanced fluorimetric detection

Amorphous fumed silica was used as a fluorescence sensitizer coated on a filter-paper substrate for use in paper electrophoresis. The usefulness of the separation method was illustrated for a mixture of two polynuclear aromatic compounds of biological interest: benzoa]pyrene (BaP) and benzoa]pyrene-r-7,t-8,9,10-tetrahydrotetrol, a hydrolysis product of BaP—DNA adduct. These two compounds were well separated and an enhancement of the fluorescence intensity was also observed when the sensitizer was applied to filter-paper prior to electrophoretic separation.