Strongly nonlinear waves in capillary electrophoresis.

ABSTRACT: In capillary electrophoresis, sample ions migrate along a microcapillary filled with a background electrolyte under the influence of an applied electric field. If the sample concentration is sufficiently high, the electrical conductivity in the sample zone could differ significantly from the background. Under such conditions, the local migration velocity of sample ions becomes concentration-dependent, resulting in a nonlinear wave that exhibits shocklike features. If the nonlinearity is weak, the sample concentration profile, under certain simplifying assumptions, can be shown to obey Burgers' equation [Ghosal and Chen, Bull. Math. Biol. 72, 2047 (2010)], which has an exact analytical solution for arbitrary initial condition. In this paper, we use a numerical method to study the problem in

SUBMITTER: Chen Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3458716 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature