Electrophoresis of DNA on a disordered two-dimensional substrate

We propose a new method for electrophoretic separation of DNA in which adsorbed polymers are driven over a disordreed two-dimensional substrate which contains attractive sites for the polymers. Using simulations of a model for long polymer chains, we show that the mobility increases with polymer length, in contrast to gel electrophoresis techniques, and that separation can be achieved for a range of length scales. We demonstrate that the separation mechanism relies on excluded volume interactions between polymer segments.