Conducting polymer electrodes for gel electrophoresis

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 19;9(2):e89416. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089416. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

In nearly all cases, electrophoresis in gels is driven via the electrolysis of water at the electrodes, where the process consumes water and produces electrochemical by-products. We have previously demonstrated that π-conjugated polymers such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) can be placed between traditional metal electrodes and an electrolyte to mitigate electrolysis in liquid (capillary electroosmosis/electrophoresis) systems. In this report, we extend our previous result to gel electrophoresis, and show that electrodes containing PEDOT can be used with a commercial polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system with minimal impact to the resulting gel image or the ionic transport measured during a separation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bridged Bicyclo Compounds, Heterocyclic / chemistry*
  • Electrochemistry
  • Electrodes*
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / instrumentation*
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / methods*
  • Polymers / chemistry*

Substances

  • Bridged Bicyclo Compounds, Heterocyclic
  • Polymers
  • poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)

Grants and funding

The authors thank the Swedish Science Council (Vetenskapsrådet) for financial support through grants 621-2007-3983 and 325-2008-7537. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.