Effect of disorder on DNA electrophoresis in a microfluidic array of obstacles

The size-based separation of electrophoresing DNA chains of varying lengths has been experimentally achieved in microfluidic obstacle arrays. The separation is actuated by the occurrence of size-dependent chain-obstacle collisions and the subsequent formation of hooked chain configurations in the array. We investigate the role played by disorder in array geometry in determining chain dynamics in the array. As a prototypical example of a disordered post array, we select a self-assembled array of magnetic colloids, wherein the degree of disorder may be varied by varying the magnetic field strength under which the array is generated. We employ Brownian dynamics simulations of chain electrophoresis in the array to compute the mobility, dispersivity, chain-obstacle collision probability, and mean chain stretch in the device, and demonstrate the link between the orientational order of the array and the resulting chain dynamics.