Macromolecular separation through a porous surface

Abstract

A new technique for the separation of macromolecules is proposed and investigated. A thin mesh with pores comparable to the radius of gyration of a free chain is used to filter chains according to their length. Without a field it has previously been shown that the permeability decays as a power law with chain length. However by applying particular configurations of pulsed fields, it is possible to have a permeability that decays as an exponential. This faster decay gives much higher resolution of separation. We also propose a modified screen containing an array of holes with barb-like protrusions running parallel to the surface. When static friction is present between the macromolecule and the protrusion, some of the chains get trapped for long durations of time. By using this and a periodic modulation of an applied electric field, high resolution can be attained.