Simplified current decoupler for microchip capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical and pulsed amperometric detection

There is a need to develop broadly applicable, highly sensitive detection methods for microchip CE that do not require analyte derivatization. LIF is highly sensitive but typically requires analyte derivatization. Electrochemistry provides an alternative method for direct analyte detection; however, in its most common form, direct current (DC) amperometry, it is limited to a small number of easily oxidizable or reducible analytes. Pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) is an alternative waveform that can increase the number of electrochemically detectable analytes. Increasing sensitivity for electrochemical detection (EC) and PAD requires the isolation of detection current (nA) from the separation current (muA) in a process generally referred to as current decoupling. Here, we present the development of a simple integrated decoupler to improve sensitivity and its coupling with PAD. A Pd microwire is used as the cathode for decoupling and a second Au or Pt wire is used as the working electrode for either EC or PAD. The electrode system is easy to make, requiring no clean-room facilities or specialized metallization systems. Sensitive detection of a wide range of analytes is shown to be possible using this system. Using this system we were able to achieve detection limits as low as 5 nM for dopamine, 74 nM for glutathione, and 100 nM for glucose.     

Existence theorem for solitary waves on lattices

In this article we give an existence theorem for localized travelling wave solutions on one-dimensional lattices with Hamiltonian $$H = \sum\limits_{n \in \mathbb{Z}} {\left( {\tfrac{1}{2}p_n^2 + V(q_{n + 1} - q_n )} \right)} ,$$ whereV(·) is the potential energy due to nearest-neighbour interactions. Until now, apart from rare integrable lattices like the Toda latticeV(φ)=ab ^?1(e ^?bφ+bφ?1), the only evidence for existence of such solutions has been numerical. Our result in particular recovers existence of solitary waves in the Toda lattice, establishes for the first time existence of solitary waves in the (nonintegrable) cubic and quartic latticesV(φ)= 1/2φ ² + 1/3aφ ³,V(φ) = 1/2φ ² + 1/4bφ ⁴, thereby confirming the numerical findings in [1] and shedding new light on the recurrence phenomena in these systems observed first by Fermi, Pasta and Ulam [2], and shows that contrary to widespread belief, the presence of exact solitary waves is not a peculiarity of integrable systems, but “generic” in this class of nonlinear lattices. The approach presented here is new and quite general, and should also be applicable to other forms of lattice equations: the travelling waves are sought as minimisers of a naturally associated variational problem (obtained via Hamilton's principle), and existence of minimisers is then established using modern methods in the calculus of variations (the concentration-compactness principle of P.-L. Lions [3]).