ITP of lanthanides in microfluidic PMMA chip

An ITP separation of eight lanthanides on a serpentine PMMA microchip with a tee junction and a 230-mm-long serpentine channel is described. The cover of the PMMA chip is 175 m thick so that a (CD)-D-4 in microchip mode can be used to detect the lanthanides as they migrate through the microchannel. Acetate and -hydroxyisobutyric acid are used as complexing agents to increase the electrophoretic mobility difference between the lanthanides. Eight lanthanides are concentrated within approximate to 6 min by ITP in the microchip using 10 mM ammonium acetate at pH 4.5 as the leading electrolyte and 10 mM acetic acid at approximate to pH 3.0 as the terminating electrolyte. In addition, a 2D numerical simulation of the lanthanides undergoing ITP in the microchip is compared with experimental results using COMSOL Multiphysics v4.3a.