Graphitic carbon nitride embedded hydrogels for enhanced gel electrophoresis

• g-C3N4 nanosheets improved the resolution and efficiency in gel electrophoresis.
• g-C3N4 loading into polyacrylamide gel increases the thermal conductivity of gel.
• g-C3N4 nanosheets increase the resolution between bands.
• g-C3N4 nanosheets act a polymerization catalyst and as heat sink.

Here, we show, for the first time, the use of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets to improve the resolution and efficiency of protein separation in gel electrophoresis. By loading 0.04% (m/v) g-C3N4 nanosheets into the polyacrylamide gel at 25 °C, the thermal conductivity increased approximately 80% which resulted in 20% reduction in Joule heating and overall increase of separation efficiency. Also, polymerization of acrylamide occurred in the absence of tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) when the polyacrylamide gel contained g-C3N4 nanosheets. Hence, the g-C3N4 act simultaneously as a polymerization catalyst as well as heat sinks to lower Joule heating effect on band broadening.

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