Electrophoresis is carried out with equipment consisting of a negative charge at one end and a positive charge at the other, called an electrophoresis system. When charged molecules are inserted into this environment, the negatively charged molecules will go to one end and the positively charged molecules to the other end. For example, when analyzing proteins in a gel, in these machines, the whole protein is taken to analyze its size. In this way, the shorter proteins will migrate to the poles more quickly and will be reflected at the bottom of the gel. The longer ones, on the other hand, will remain at the top.
When a mixture of ionized molecules with a net charge are placed in an electric field, they experience a force of attraction towards the pole with the opposite charge. After a certain time has elapsed, the positively charged molecules will move towards the cathode (negative pole) and the positively charged molecules will move towards the anode (positive pole).