Comparative study of cylindrical and parallel-plate electrophoretic separations for the removal of ions and sub-23 nm particles.

Cylindrical and parallel-plate electrophoretic separations for the removal of ions and sub-23 nm particles were compared in this study. First, COMSOL Multiphysics® software was utilized to simulate the ion and particle trajectories inside both electrophoretic separations. The results show that ions and sub-23 nm particles are removed simultaneously and that all particles can pass through both electrophoretic separations smoothly at a trap voltage of 25 V. The experimental results show that ion losses become smaller with increasing ion flow rates, and ion losses of the cylindrical and parallel-plate electrophoretic separations range from 56.2 to 71.6% and from 43.8 to 59.6%, respectively, at ion flow rates ranging from 1-3 L/min. For the removal of ions and sub-23 nm particles, the collection efficiency of both electrophoretic separations can reach 100%, but the parallel-plate electrophoretic separation requires a lower trap voltage. The particle loss of the parallel-plate electrophoretic separation is under approximately 10%, which is lower than that of the cylindrical electrophoretic separation. In particular, for large particles (800-2500 nm), the particle losses inside the cylindrical electrophoretic separation are approximately two times higher than those inside the parallel-plate electrophoretic separation. The parallel-plate electrophoretic separation is beneficial for the removal of ions and sub-23 nm particles.