A Fiber Optic Colorimeter For Liquid Phase Chromatography Of Aminoacids

S. Donati; T. Tambosso

doi:10.1117/12.959975

19 January 1989 A Fiber Optic Colorimeter For Liquid Phase Chromatography Of Aminoacids

S. Donati, T. Tambosso

Proceedings Volume 0990, Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Applications of Fibers; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959975
Event: O-E/Fiber LASE '88, 1988, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

Liquid phase chromatography is a well known technique routinely used in analytical chemistry for assays and measurements of aminoacids 1,2. Basically, the solution is pumped at high pressure in a long capillary tube (the chromatographic column) to fraction out the constituents, is mixed to a suitable reactant (usually ninhydrine) so as to develop a spectral absorbance, and is finally analyzed in a flow cell by a colorimeter. With ninhydrine, the reaction product is DIDA (diketo-hydrindilidene-diketolhydrin diamine) which exhibits absorbance peaks at 440 nm (blue) and 570 nm (yellow) in a proportion dependent on the specific aminoacid (Fig. 1), while the amplitude of peaks is proportional to the aminoacid concentration in view of Lambert-Beer law. Besides the two measurement channels of absorbance, either of which or the sum of which is taken as the output signal, a third channel at the wavelength 690 nm at which DIDA is transparent (Ar = 0), is used internally as the reference to the first two. Thus, the colorimeter is actually a spectrophotometer with two fixed-wavelength channels, each referenced in wavelength. In this paper, we report on the design and engineering of a colorimeter aimed to medium/high performances, high reliability and low cost. Use of fiber optics as the beamsplitter of the optical channels is shown to give substantial advantages.

Citation Download Citation

S. Donati and T. Tambosso "A Fiber Optic Colorimeter For Liquid Phase Chromatography Of Aminoacids", Proc. SPIE 0990, Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Applications of Fibers, (19 January 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959975

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