Characterization of Nanofilter Arrays for Small Molecule Separation

Experimental studies were performed to evaluate methods of improving separation resolution and speed in microfabricated nanofilter arrays. Experiment parameters investigated include electric field strength, nanofilter geometry, and buffer concentration. DNA polymers of size 25-1000 base pairs were the subject of our study. We concluded that increasing electric field strength resulted in inferior separation for larger DNA polymers (400-1000 bp). Additionally, we quantified the improvement in resolution of smaller nanofilter pores and lower buffer concentration. A theoretical model based on Macrotransport Theory was developed to estimate average species velocity and peak dispersion