Electric-field induced phase transitions in capillary electrophoretic systems

Abstract

The movement of particles in a capillary electrophoretic system under electroosmotic flow was modeled using Monte Carlo simulation with the Metropolis algorithm. Two different cases with repulsive and attractive interactions between molecules were taken into consideration. Simulation was done using a spin-like system, where the interactions between the nearest and second closest neighbors were considered in two separate steps of the modeling study. A total of 20 different cases with different rates of interactions for both repulsive and attractive interactions were modeled. The movement of the particles through the capillary is defined as current. At a low interaction level between molecules, a regular electroosmotic flow is obtained; on the other hand, with increasing interactions between molecules, the current shows a phase transition behavior. The results also show that a modular electroosmotic flow can be obtained for separations by tuning the ratio between molecular interactions and electric field strength.