Separation of chemical mixtures into their constituents is a critical step in biochemical analyses. The technical challenge here is the exact opposite of the much talked about problem of "microfluidic mixing". In free solution
CE, the species separate into bands due to differences in the electrophoretic mobility of components.
Electrophoresis is usually accompanied by a bulk electroosmotic flow that sweeps both charged species towards a single detector near the outlet. Any axial inhomogeneity in the properties of the channel can result in flow
disturbances that lead to increased broadening of the bands and consequent sharp loss in separation efficiency. Asymptotic methods are used to analyze the flow and dispersion in such non ideal systems based on the assumption of a slowly varying microfluidic channel.
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