Properties of the Contactless Impedance Detector with Insulated Wire Electrodes Placed Inside the Flowing Liquid Stream

The behavior of a flow cell, in which the impedance is measured between two insulated wire electrodes located within the stream of the test liquid, is described and compared with that of a semi‐quantitative theoretical model. A new approach is used to the monitoring of the impedance signal, based on connecting the cell as the input impedance of an operational amplifier in the differentiating circuit. A triangular AC voltage is fed to one of the electrodes and the other electrode is connected to the amplifier input. The square‐wave voltage at the amplifier output depends at low frequencies (from hundreds of Hz to several kHz) on the capacitive component of the overall impedance. The basic analytical parameters are in satisfactory agreement with the model and are comparable to those obtained with common contactless impedance detectors operating at higher frequencies of hundreds of kHz to a few MHz and monitoring primarily the conductance component of the impedance. The system described offers new detection possibilities, mainly for nonionic analytes of varying polarities.     

一种基于双工作电极-双通道的毛细管电泳电化学检测系统

报道了一种双工作电极-双通道毛细管电泳电化学检测系统，实现电导和安培 同时检测或者安培与安培检测联用，使两种方法相互补充，发挥各自的优势。其中 ，工作电极与检测池的制作工艺简单，操作简便，通过不锈钢针管和毛细管作为套 管，无需三维微调装置即可简单实现双工作电极的准确放置及分离毛细管与工作电 极的准确对接，并根据分析体系的需要采用不同类型的工作电极和检测器；同时采 用复式滤波电路解决了不同检测器之间的电场叠加对输出信号的干扰问题。采用该 装置可以同时检测复杂体系中的电活性和惰性物质，或同时测定只能氧化或只能还 原的物质，还可以对具有氧化还原性质的物质进行纯度的确证。将该装置应用于实 际样品的测定，节约了分析时间，提高了分析速度，扩大了检测范围，结果令人满 意。     

毛细管电泳高频电导检测器的研制

设计了一种新的毛细管电泳检测器.根据高频电导滴定原理,将电导电极做成两个金属圆筒套于分离毛细管外,并向两个电极施加高频电压.经毛细管分离后的组分流过两个电极之间时,高频电流发生变化,得到毛细管电泳图.该检测器具有应用范围广、操作简便及重现性好等优点,已初步应用于混合无机离子的测定.     

一种共聚焦激光诱导荧光检测器的研制

 基于共聚焦检测，研制了一台便携式激光诱导荧光检测器。该系统具有体积小、重量轻、成本低等特点；成像观察校准系统使日常校准非常简单。采用毛细管电泳和流动注射方式对该体系性能进行了评价，以Cy5染料与Cy5标记的色氨酸作为检测物质，其检测下限为3.7 nmol/L。     

Silver Amalgam Tubular Detector Combined with Platinum Auxiliary Electrode for Electrochemical Measurements in Flow Systems

A new type of tubular detector with platinum auxiliary electrode inside the silver amalgam tube (TD+AuxE) was proposed, fabricated, tested and compared with a typical silver amalgam tubular detector developed earlier. Non‐stop‐flow differential pulse voltammetric anodic stripping method (AS‐DPV) and amperometric method in a glucose oxidase biosensor arrangement were tested. Both detectors were applied for AS‐DPV detection in flow systems for the first time. Solutions of zinc and cadmium cations were used as the testing species for voltammetry, and detection of oxygen concentration was used for amperometry. All these experiments require application of highly negative potentials, which is possible to realize with detectors made of silver solid amalgam. The proposed combination of TD+AuxE provides a much greater current response than the arrangement with three individual electrodes. All relevant parameters were optimized for the developed TD+AuxE. The simple and fast measuring protocol for the determination of the zinc content in commercial food supplement tablets has been developed.     

Applications of capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE‐C4D) in pharmaceutical and biological analysis

Conductivity detection, which is universal in capillary electrophoresis (CE), has received considerable attention, since the introduction of the axial capacitively coupled contactless detector C⁴D in 1998. This detector is made of two electrodes which are placed cylindrically around the CE capillary and connected to the AC oscillator. The distance between the electrodes is the detection gap. In this review, applications of CE and MCE with C⁴D in pharmaceutical and biological analysis are presented.     

Understanding Capacitively Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detection in Capillary and Microchip Electrophoresis. Part 2. Peak Shape,Stray Capacitance,Noise, and Actual Electronics

Although simple equivalent circuits have been used to explain the basic functioning of a capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector (C⁴D), more sophisticated models are required to take into account the effects of the spatial non‐homogeneity of the solution conductivity as the electrophoretic zones pass inside the detector. The overshooting phenomenon observed in real electropherograms may be explained by modeling the coupling of the electrodes with the inner capillary with a network of resistors and capacitors and its dependence with the stray capacitance becomes evident. An even more detailed model of the cell based on electrostatics allows one to calculate the stray capacitances. For the typical geometries and materials, this capacitance is on the order of a few to hundreds of femtofarads. It was possible to demonstrate that the ground plane, sometimes used, reduces the capacitance, but does not eliminate it completely. Possible noise sources are also discussed. The electrode tightness minimizes a possible source of mechanical noise due to variation of the coupling capacitances. Thermal control should also be ensured; the calculations showed that a temperature fluctuation as low as 7×10^?3 °C induces artifacts as high as the limit of quantification of K⁺ in a typical electrophoretic condition, for which the technique has one of its highest sensitivities.     

A Simple Contactless Conductivity Detector Employing a Medium Wave Radio Integrated Circuit for the Signal Treatment

A new procedure has been tested for the treatment of the alternating signal coming from a contactless conductivity detection cell. The cell consists of a polyethylene (2 mm o.d., 1.5 mm i.d.) or polytetrafluoroethylene (1.6 mm o.d., 0.8 mm i.d.) tubing, with 5 mm wide tubular electrodes placed over the tubing and separated by a 5 mm gap. An unmodulated or an amplitude‐modulated AC voltage is applied to the cell and the AC current passing through the cell is treated by a TDA 1072A integrated circuit, obtaining a signal depending on the conductivity of the quiescent or flowing solution inside the cell. Under optimized conditions, the solution conductance can be measured within a range from ca. 10 to 700 μS cm^?1, corresponding to ca. 9×10^?5 to 5×10^?3 M KCl. The detector was used to measure the conductivities of various drinking waters and the values obtained were in a good agreement with those provided by a commercial contact conductometer. It has been found that the use of unmodulated input voltage is advantageous both experimentally, and from the point of view of the quality of the analytical characteristics. The integrated circuit tested is not, however, sufficiently sensitive for application to capillary detection cells with diameters of a few tens of μm, employed in microseparation procedures.     

A contactless conductivity detector for capillary electrophoresis: effects of the detection cell geometry on the detector performance

The effect of the gap between the electrodes and of their width on the behavior of a capacitively wired contactless conductivity detector was studied. The results obtained have indicated that the detector response can be qualitatively described by a model based on the concept of the effective electrode width which is a complex parameter determined by the gap between the electrodes, the frequency of the input signal and the conductivity of the test solution. The detector sensitivity and the effect on the separation efficiency depend on the difference between the effective and geometric electrode widths. Higher detection sensitivities have been attained for detectors with wide electrodes operating at lower frequencies, however, better separation efficiencies have been achieved using detectors with narrow electrodes and higher operational frequencies. The noise increases with decreasing gap between the electrodes and increasing frequency, especially with detectors employing narrow electrodes.     

A Comparison of the Properties of Contactless Conductivity and Diode‐Array Photometric Detectors in Analyses of Low‐Molecular,Biologically Active Substances by Capillary Electrophoresis in Acetic Acid Solutions

The performance of the contactless conductivity (C⁴D) and diode array photometric (DAD) detectors has been compared for CE separations of creatinine, arginine and 3‐methylhistidine in acetic acid background electrolytes. The contactless conductivity detector response has also been modeled. It has been found that the two detectors provide similar responses and can readily be used for dual CE detection. Changes in the acetic acid concentration affect the C⁴D noise less than the DAD noise, but their effect on the C⁴D response to the analytes is greater than with DAD. In general, C⁴D provides better detection results at higher acetic acid concentrations, while DAD is more sensitive and reliable at very low ones. Capillaries with greater internal diameters are preferable for both detectors, provided that the separation efficiency is not adversely affected. Acetic acid is a suitable background electrolyte for CE separations of small, basic organic molecules.     

Detectability enhancement of spectrophotometric detectors by the use of multidimensional gas chromatography

Multidimensional gas chromatography (2D GC) is demonstrated as a way to improve limits of detectability of spectrophotometric detectors. UV and IR detectors are generally less sensitive than mass spectrometers or other GC detectors. This has placed some limitations on the useful capabilities provided by spectrophotometric detectors, such as the ability to provide structure‐related information for a particular analyte. In this paper, we report results from interfacing a 2D GC instrument to a UV detector. Symmetry factor and the ratio of retention time divided by peak width did not show deterioration of the quality of chromatography when a megabore column was used with this detector. Furthermore, an increase in the limits of detectability over that attainable in a single‐column system was realized by using the 2D GC system. However, the low flow (1 mL/min) imposed by the use of a microbore column (250 μm ID) caused significant tailing when the UV detector was used.     

Direct Electrochemical Oxidation of DNA on Polycrystalline Gold Electrodes

Electrochemical CV and SWV studies were performed with double stranded DNA from salmon testes (dsDNA) and single stranded DNAs, containing 25 nucleotides (ssDNA) directly adsorbed at polycrystalline Au electrodes. A distinct oxidation peak at +730 mV (SWV, scan rate 0.248 V s^?1) or at +730 – +780 mV (CV, scan rate from 0.3 to 1 V s^?1) was obtained with DNA‐modified Au electrodes after a time‐dependent prepolarization step at a positive potential value, i.e., at +500 mV (vs. Ag|AgCl), performed with the DNA‐modified Au electrodes dipped in a blank buffer solution. No electrochemical activity was detected when ssDNA, containing no guanines, was used for adsorptive modification of the Au electrodes. Electrochemical impedance measurements registered a possible reorganization of the adsorbed DNA layer in the course of the prepolarization, accompanied by decreasing in‐phase impedance. The results enable us to relate the oxidation process observed at the DNA‐modified Au electrodes with the oxidation of guanine residues in DNA.     

Effective length calibration method for processing the fluorescence signal detected by charge‐coupled device in capillary electrophoresis

A novel method named effective length calibration method has been developed to process the fluorescence signal detected by charge‐coupled device during capillary electrophoresis. The new method treated each pixel as an individual point detector, and effectively binned a large number of pixels into a final electropherogram without losing the narrow detection window defined by a single pixel. Capillary electrophoresis separations of DNA were carried out and detected by charge‐coupled device and conventional detector (photomultiplier tube). Detection properties including signal‐to‐noise ratio, peak width, detection frequency, and tilt of detector were investigated. It was found that the new method achieved much higher signal‐to‐noise ratio and smaller peak width than the conventional detector did. A Detection width of 0.5 μm was easily achieved.     

Improved dual photometric-contactless conductometric detector for capillary electrophoresis

A new design of a dual, UV photometric - contactless conductometric detector is described. The separation capillary with an optical window created is pressed onto two semitubular electrodes, 3 mm wide and 2 mm apart. The electrodes form the detection cell of the contactless conductometric detector. An optical fiber, placed in the gap between the conductometric electrodes, brings radiation from the source. The radiation that passes through the separation capillary is recorded by a large-area photodiode. The optical fiber and the photodiode operate the photometric cell which is between the conductometric electrodes. The detector thus permits simultaneous photometric and conductometric detection in the same place of the capillary, while exchanging of the separation capillary is easy and without effect on the detector geometry and performance.     

Wall-jet conductivity detector for microchip capillary electrophoresis

A new end-column ‘hybrid’ contactless conductivity detector for microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) was developed. It is based on a “hybrid” arrangement where the receiving electrode is insulated by a thin layer of insulator and placed in the bulk solution of the detection reservoir of the chip, whereas the emitting electrode is in contact with the solution eluted from the channel outlet in a wall-jet arrangement. The favorable features of the new detector including the high sensitivity and low noise, can be attributed to both the direct contact of the ‘emitting’ electrode with the analyte solution as well as to the insulation of the detection electrode from the high DC currents in the electrophoretic circuit. Such arrangement provides a 10-fold sensitivity enhancement compared to currently used on-column contactless conductivity CE microchip detector as well as low values of noise and easy operation. The new design of the wall-jet conductivity detector was tested for separation of explosive-related methylammonium, ammonium, and sodium cations. The new detector design reconsiders the wall-jet arrangement for microchip conductivity detection in scope of improved peak symmetry, simplified study of inter-electrode distance, isolation of the electrodes, position of the wall-jet electrode to the separation channel, baseline stability and low limits of detection.     

Recent applications of conductivity detection in capillary and chip electrophoresis

The review provides a comprehensive survey of the recent applications of contact and contactless conductivity detection in capillary electrophoretic and chip electrophoretic analyses of a broad scale of compounds, from low-molecular-mass highly mobile small inorganic and organic ions, via medium-molecular-mass peptides and oligo- and polynucleotides up to high-molecular-mass biopolymers, proteins and nucleic acids fragments. The review presents also the recent developments in the construction of different types of conductivity detectors (detectors with galvanic contact of the sensing electrodes with the BGE and sample components, contactless conductivity detectors with capacitively coupled tubular and semitubular electrodes and combined conductivity/optical detectors) applied in the capillary electromigration methods performed in classical fused silica, polytetrafluorethylene, and polyetheretherketone capillaries or on glass and polymethylmethacrylate microchips. In addition, the principle and theoretical bases of conductivity detection in capillary electromigration techniques, zone electrophoresis, ITP, micellar EKC, and electrochromatography are briefly described.     

新型三维可调共聚焦激光诱导荧光检测器的研制与评价

共聚焦结构是激光诱导荧光检测器(LIFD)中使用最广泛的光路结构之一,增强光路系统同轴精度和降低系统杂散光是降低仪器基线噪声水平、提高其信噪比(S/N)的两种有效手段。采用精密三维反光镜调节架和模块化设计光路系统,研制了一种高效液相色谱用高精度共聚焦激光诱导荧光检测器,对异硫氰酸荧光素(fluorescein isothiocyanate, FITC)的检出限为1×10~12 mol/L。基线噪声与漂移较改进前降低了一个数量级,分别达到8.0×10~3 mV和1.4×10~3 mV/h,且稳定性好,5×10~9 mol/L FITC样品连续5次进样分析的峰面积和峰高相对标准偏差(RSD)均小于0.5%。进一步用FITC衍生化生物胺对研制的检测器进行评价,检出限(S/N=3)达到0.01～0.02 nmol/L。新研制的LIFD噪声低、稳定性好、灵敏度高,适用于生物、食品和环境样品中痕量物质的分析。     

A New Dual-electrode and Multi-channel Electrochemical Detection System for Capillary Electrophoresis

A new type of dual-electrode and multi-channel electrochemical detection technology for capillary electrophoresis is described in this paper.Two detectors(the amperometric detector and the conductometric detector) or two conductometric detectors are connected to the same capillary electrophoresis system.The whole system possesses the advantages of the two electrochemical detectors including sparing time,improving the analytical speed and expanding the sample range.The working electrode and detector cell are handled easily.The system was applied to sample detection with satisfactory results.     

Flow-injection system with ion-exchange separation and potentiometric detection for the determination of three halides

The use of ion exchangers in flow-injection systems is reviewed briefly. In the method described, halides are separated on a short column of a strongly basic ion-exchange resin (Dowex 1-X8) placed in the flow-injection conduit, with a laboratory-made tubular silver/silver halide ion-selective electrode as potentiometric sensor. The response capabilities of the different halide-selective electrodes to a wide concentration range (20-5000 mg dm^?3) of single and mixed halide solutions with and without the incorporated ion-exchange column are compared. By careful selection of suitable concentrations of the potassium nitrate carrier/eluent stream to satisfy the requirements of both the ion-exchange column and the halide-selective electrode, it is possible to separate and determine chloride, bromide and iodide in mixed halide solutions with a detection limit of 5 mg dm^?3. The bromide-selective electrode is the most satisfactory detector.     

A new NaI detector arrangement for efficient detection of high energy gamma-rays

Summary Prompt gamma-ray neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) and neutron inelastic scattering (NIS) techniques have been widely used for measuring elemental composition in bulk samples. The neutrons and gamma-rays used in this technique are highly penetrating, which allows the analysis of large sample volumes. In the oil well logging industry, there are limitations on the size of detectors used -particularly the detector diameter. This limitation can lead to a low detection probability for the high energy gamma-rays. A new NaI detector arrangement (patent pending) has been designedto deal with this problem. The arrangement consists of two NaI detectors, one of which is a well type. The first detector is 1"×5" and the second is a well type 5" long with a wall thickness of 0.35" and a hole diameter of one inch. The first detector is placed inside of the well detector for use. Feasibility studies were performed with this arrangement using a ²⁴Na radioactive source and a sulfur sample or prompt gamma-rays. An enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was observed in both cases based on the peak height to continuum height in the resulting prompt gamma-ray spectra.