Application of Pluronic copolymer liquid crystals for the capillary electrophoretic separation of collagen type I cyanogen bromide fragments.

A capillary electrophoretic method exploiting the properties of Pluronic copolymer liquid crystals (F127) was developed for the separation of collagen cyanogen bromide (CNBr) fragments. The separations obtained were at least comparable (if not better) to those obtained by other methods applicable to this category of compounds. In the optimized version a bare silica capillary [47 cm (40 cm to the detector) x 75 microm I.D.] was used with 10 mM Tris and 75 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5) containing 7.5% Pluronic F127 copolymer. The separation mechanism which involves both the molecular sieving and surfactant properties of the Pluronic F127 gel phase is discussed.