Mathematical model and computer simulation on moving precipitate boundary electrophoresis for offline sample pre- concentration of heavy metal ion

In this paper, a mathematical model and computer simulator were developed for offline sample pretreatment of heavy metal ion based on moving precipitate boundary (MPB) electrophoresis. The simulation indicates that (i) the program can easily accomplish numerical computations, such as the velocities of MPB and elution boundary (EB), and enrichment factor (EF) etc; (ii) the simulator can vividly imitate the dynamics of MPB, EB, precipitate zone, and precipitate-elution; and (iii) the software may simply optimized experimental conditions via the influence factors (e.g., voltage, hydroxyl, hydrogen and metal ions) on the EF. As a proof of concept, copper ion and its precipitate with definite blue color were, respectively chosen as mode heavy metal ion and alkaline precipitate for the relevant experiments of MPB-based sample preconcentration of heavy metal ion in large tube. All of the experimental results manifest the validity of developed mathematical model and the relevant simulation results. The model and simulator advanced herein are of clear significance to the optimization of experimental conditions and understanding of offline MPB- based sample condensation of heavy metal ion. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.