ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of novel separation techniques utilizing surfactants. It focuses on micellar chromatography, particularly for application involving protein separation. Micellar chromatography is similar to ordinary reverse phase chromatography. A micellar solution is used as the mobile phase instead of an aqueous organic mixture. One aspect of micellar chromatography with surprising advantages is the use of gradient programming. One advantage of gradient programming is that there is no significant effect of micellar concentration on the signal of an electrochemical detector. Many surfactant-based separations utilize the solubilization or dissolution of a solute in the intertwined hydrocarbon tails of a surfactant aggregate. Proteins tend to denature in organic solutes. There are several surfactant-based separations based on adsorption. A major advantage of solution-based separations over these surface-based separations is that the diffusional effects are much less important in the former.
