Fabrication of colloidal crystals featuring sub-20 nm pore size for protein separation

• Author / Creator

  Malekpourkoupaei, Ali

• Clinical point-of-care (POC) diagnosis remains an open and challenging field of
  research worldwide in which the study of the mechanism and dynamics of protein
  molecule separation using electrophoresis is of considerable interest.
  The quality of a protein separation is strongly dependent on the separating matrix
  and conditions under which the electrophoresis is performed. This research is
  mainly focused on development of a novel separation matrix, based upon the selfassembly
  of particles in a colloidal suspension, within a microfluidic chip.
  Several challenges were overcome in developing crystalline particle arrays that
  generate a porous material with pores smaller than 20 nm. The effect of pore size
  on separation of proteins of differing molecular weight and size was then studied,
  and the mechanism of separation, which appears to change in the smallest size
  range, was explored.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Electrophoresis
  • Protein separation
  • Crystal growth
  • Colloidal self-assembly
  • Microfluidics

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3BV7B41N

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.