System for capillary electrophoresis for peptide and protein analysis

1. A method of coating the inside wall of a capillary with a polymeric material for capillary electrophoresis (CE), the method comprising:

a) covalently grafting a vinyl group to the inside wall of an uncoated capillary to form a pretreated capillary;

b) introducing a catalyst-free solution of a monomer and initiator, wherein the monomer is present at about 2% (w/v) to about 10% (w/v) and the initiator is present at about 0.1% (w/v) to about 1% (w/v), into the pretreated capillary and thermally initiating polymerization of the monomer, wherein the monomer forms a hydrophilic polymer upon polymerization;

c) removing an excess of the solution thereby providing a hollow CE capillary comprising an internal polymeric coating for CE;

wherein the internal polymeric coating is substantially linear, forms a covalent bond to the grafted vinyl group, and coats the inside wall of the hollow CE capillary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the monomer is present at about 4% (w/v).

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the initiator is present at about 0.2% (w/v).

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the initiator comprises a persulfate.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the monomer is acrylamide.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalyst-free solution is introduced into the pretreated capillary by vacuum.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein thermally initiating polymerization of the monomer comprises sealing both ends of the pretreated capillary and heating the pretreated capillary, wherein the catalyst-free solution is introduced into the pretreated capillary.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein thermally initiating polymerization is at about 40° C. to about 70° C.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the resolution, R s , of the CE capillary is improved by a factor of about 1.5 to about 2.5, compared to a capillary having a coating prepared by a catalyzed polymerization reaction.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproducibility of analyte migration along the CE capillary is about 3% to about 5% run to run.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproducibility of analyte migration along the CE capillary is about 6% to about 8% batch to batch.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the relative standard deviation of the separation window is about 0.5% to about 1.5% batch to batch.

13. A method of coating the inside wall of a capillary with linear polyacrylamide (LPA) for capillary electrophoresis (CE), the method comprising:

a) covalently grafting a vinyl-silane to the inside wall of an uncoated capillary to form a pretreated capillary;

b) introducing a catalyst-free solution of acrylamide monomer and an initiator, wherein the monomer is present at about 2% (w/v) to about 10% (w/v) and the initiator is present at about 0.1% (w/v) to about 1% (w/v), into the pretreated capillary and thermally initiating polymerization of the monomer;

c) removing an excess of the solution thereby providing a hollow CE capillary comprising an internal LPA coating for CE;

wherein the internal LPA coating forms a covalent bond to the grafted vinyl-silane and coats the inside wall of the hollow CE capillary.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the inside wall of the uncoated capillary is flushed with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide prior to step a), and the vinyl silane is 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the initiator comprises a persulfate.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein thermally initiating polymerization is at about 40° C. to about 70° C.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the CE capillary has a median plate count of about 125,000 plates.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the distal end of the CE capillary is etched.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the distal end has an outer diameter of about 70 μm.