Microchip Electrophoresis For Separation And Analysis Of Chiral Amino Acids

Biological macromolecules, as basis of living activity, are almostly constituted with chiral molecules, which referred to origin and evolution of life. To study biological macromolecules, separation of them from complex chiral mixture is of great importance and a challenge requiring separation techniques with high sensitivity, selectivity and efficiency.Microfluidics is currently one of the most popular research fields. By taking advantages of the miniaturized microfluidic systems, conventional analytical methods and separation techniques are able to become more efficient. In this thesis, a microfluidic-based fluorescence detection system was developed for separating and analyzing dansyl amino acid enantiomers by using avidin, cyclodextrin and its derivatives as the chiral selectors. Separation conditions such as pH and the organic modifiers were then investigated and optimized. By using avidin for physical adsorption, four dansyl amino acid enantiomers were successfully separated in a 5 cm-long microchannel using chip capillary electrochromatography with a separation time about 10 times faster than the conventional capillary electrophoresis. Results indicate that this new method is capable of fast separating and detecting biological chiral molecules. In this thesis, a novel approach to study the interaction between biological molecules was demonstrated.