Sodium boric acid

Sodium boric acid (SB) is used in the laboratory as buffer for gel electrophoresis. It is significantly cheaper than TBE and TAE and can be run at higher speeds (5-35V/cm) compared to 5-10V/cm for TBE and TAE.

The cost per gel run is 7US cents, compared to 27US cents for TAE and 67US cents for TBE. Temparature is much lower then with TBE/TAE buffers, therefore the voltage can be increased.