Laser-based non-fluorescence detection techniques for liquid separation systems.

Over the last two decades, the possibility to use lasers for detection purposes in column liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) received much attention in the analytical chemistry literature. Most attention has been devoted to laser-induced fluorescence. The present review covers developments on non-fluorescence techniques for LC and CE. The techniques considered are thermal lens spectrometry, photoacoustic detection, refractive index detection including refractive index backscattering, Raman spectroscopy and degenerate four-wave mixing (a special mode of transientholographic spectroscopy). The paper starts with an outline of the characteristics of lasers; it ends with an overall evaluation and a discussion of the perspectives of the techniques dealt with.

Some aspects of room-temperature phosphorescence in liquid solutions.

Experimental requirements for room-temperature phosphorescence measurements in liquids (RTPL) are discussed. Phosphorescence quantum yields and triplet lifetimes of some brominated naphthalenes and halogenated biphenyls at 77 K in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and at room temperature in hexane are reported and compared. Surprisingly the naphthalenes show only little loss in quantum yields in going from 77 K to room temperature. Sensitized phosphorescence is discussed as a means of expanding the analytical potential of RTPL. Results with a model system of benzophenone as a donor (analyte) and 1,4-dibromonaphthalene as an acceptor are presented.

Determination of the anticancer drug metabolite WR1065 using pre-column derivatization and diode laser induced fluorescence detection.

A liquid chromatographic (LC) procedure using alumina as stationary phase in both the pre- and the analytical column, is reported for the determination of WR1065, the active metabolite of the amino- and thiol-containing anticancer drug WR2721. After pre-column derivatization of the thiol group, the analyte is determined by LC with diode laser induced fluorescence detection in the near-infrared. Selective removal of excess label is achieved by means of column switching; it allows the detection of 5 x 10(-9) M WR1065 in water and 10-fold diluted, deproteinated plasma samples. The detection limit is determined by the derivatization reaction and not by the fluorescence detection of the labelled analyte. Endogeneous thiols do not interfere.

Determination of phenprocoumon in plasma and urine using at-line solid-phase extraction-capillary electrophoresis.

The use of capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the analysis of biological samples is rather problematic because of the large number of interferences present in the matrix. One of the possibilities to solve such problems is to couple solid-phase extraction (SPE) at-line with CE, a technique developed in our laboratory. In this study at-line SPE-CE is performed for the determination of the anticoagulant phenprocoumon in biological fluids. Plasma samples are injected after the addition of 1 vol.% of formic acid to release the drug from binding proteins, while urine samples can be directly injected. The procedure is linear between 0.2 and 30 microg ml(-1) with a correlation coefficient, r2, of 0.9996. The detection limit in plasma is 0.1 microg ml(-1), which is fully adequate in view of the concentrations, that have to be dealt with in practice. The phenprocoumon concentration in a plasma sample of a patient treated with the anticoagulant was 3.8 microg ml(-1).

HPLC detection of choline and acetylcholine in serum and urine by an immobilized enzyme reactor followed by chemiluminescence detection.

A method using HPLC has been developed for the detection of choline (Ch) and acetylcholine (ACh) using an immobilized enzyme reactor which converts Ch and ACh into hydrogen peroxide and betaïne. The formed H(2)O(2) is quantified by means of a solid-state peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence detector based on an immobilized fluorophore and addition of oxalate from a solid bed. The conditions necessary for chemiluminescence detection are obtained by using a make-up flow of acetonitrile after the enzyme reactor. Precipitation problems due to the poor solubility of salts in the final acetonitrile-water mixture are circumvented by adding a crown ether to the make-up flow. The reproducibility of the method was calculated to be 3.4-3.7% RSD. Detection limits are in the sub-picomole range and a linear range of at least three orders of magnitude is found. Measurements in urine and serum reveal no matrix effects.

Trace analysis of 3-hydroxy benzo[a]pyrene in urine for the biomonitoring of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Determination of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) metabolites in urine can provide direct insight into recent exposure to BaP integrated from all uptake routes. In order to detect 3-OH BaP in human urine after exposure to BaP at the workplace, extremely sensitive methods need to be developed. In this paper, a new extraction method is presented, and two laser-based fluorescence techniques are evaluated. Using HPLC with laser-induced fluorescence detection, a detection limit of 8 ng/L was obtained. With laser-excited Shpol'skii spectrometry after chemical derivatization, 3-OH BaP could be detected at even a 0.5-ng/L concentration. In a pilot study, urine samples from coke-oven workers and from occupationally nonexposed control persons were analyzed. In the control samples, the average 3-OH BaP concentration was 8.3 ng/L; the 3-OH BaP concentrations were found to be highly correlated (r2 = 0.89) with urinary 1-OH pyrene, a widely used biomarker for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure. Significantly elevated 1-OH pyrene concentrations were measured in urine samples from coke-oven workers, but in most samples a corresponding increase of 3-OH BaP was not observed. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.

Low-level interferences in peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence.

The role of interferences at concentrations lower than 10(-3) M in peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence is examined based on experimental results available in the literature. Implications for fluorophore and for hydrogen peroxide determinations are discussed. An interpretation in terms of the reaction mechanism is proposed.

On the mechanism of peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence. Quenched chemiluminescence as a detection method in HPLC.

Several analytes such as the inorganic anions bromide, iodide, sulphite and nitrite and organic compounds as substituted anilines and sulphur compounds cause quenching of peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence. A detection method for liquid chromatography based on the quenching phenomenon has been developed. It makes use of an immobilized luminophore, i.e. 3-aminofluoranthene covalently bound via an alkyl-spacer on controlled pore glass, packed in the detector cell. The mechanism behind the quenching has been elucidated by investigating the roles of luminophores (both in the liquid and in solid state) and oxalates in peroxylate CL with respect to quenchers. Most probably the quencher destroys the radical ion pair produced after electron transfer in the last stage of the CIEEL reaction scheme, thus preventing the formation of electronically excited luminophore.

Lanthanide luminescence quenching as a detection method in ion chromatography. Chromate in surface and drinking water.

Dynamic quenching of Eu(III) and Tb(III) luminescence by inorganic anions as a detection method in ion chromatography was investigated. To obtain a high luminescence intensity, lanthanide(III) complexes are formed with ligands which make indirect excitation of the ions possible. Only a few anions (e.g., nitrite, chromate) induce efficient dynamic luminescence quenching. Chromate is an efficient quencher of Tb-acac luminescence. Samples of tap water and surface water, spiked with chromate, were injected into a high-performance liquid chromatographic system with post-column addition of the luminescent complex. In this way, a detection limit of 1.1 . 10(-7) M (13 ppb) of chromate could be obtained.

Room temperature phosphorescence as a liquid chromatographic detection method for polychlorinated naphthalenes and biphenyls in complex matrices.

Quenched and sensitized room temperature phosphorescence techniques have been used for the detection of PCNs and PCBs after liquid chromatographic separation. The usefulness of these techniques to fingerprinting of commercial Aroclor and Halowax mixtures in complex matrices has been shown. The complementary nature of these detection modes yield valuable information in addition to UV detection. a signal inverter is proposed for linearization of the quenched RTPL signals. In this way linear calibration plots over more than two orders can be obtained. Detection limits are generally in the low nanogram or subnanogram concentration region. The application of RTPL detection techniques to the analysis of commercial PCN and PCB mixtures in surface water and urine is demonstrated. Pre-columns can be used to advantage for pre-concentration and clean-up of this type of samples.

At-line solid-phase extraction for capillary electrophoresis: application to negatively charged solutes.

The analysis of complex biological samples with capillary electrophoresis (CE) requires proper sample pretreatment. In this paper the applicability of solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled at-line with CE is studied, by using a laboratory-made interface. A fresh (disposable) SPE cartridge is used for each sample to prevent carry-over effects. The sample handling procedure is performed parallel with the analysis of the previous sample, to improve sample throughput. Using this set-up, negatively charged test compounds (some non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) can be determined in serum and urine. The method is linear over at least two decades and detection limits are around 40 microg/l. A single capillary, flushed only once a week with a sodium hydroxide solution, was used without problems for the analysis of ca. 900 samples during 1 year. The robustness of the system was very good: no blocking of loop, interface or capillary was found during this period. Furthermore, the system was successfully used for overnight runs.

Analyte identification in capillary electrophoretic separation techniques.

A review on applications of on-line hyphenation in capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography for the identification of migrating analytes is presented. There is an urgent need for unambiguous analyte identification by combining spectral information and observed migration times, because the parameters influencing the migration times and separation efficiencies in these separation techniques are not easily controlled, especially when real samples containing unknown interferences have to be analyzed. The spectrometric techniques covered here are ultraviolet and visible radiation (UV/Vis) absorption, fluorescence including fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. Attention is essentially confined to literature reports in which the extra information provided by the detector is really used for identification purposes, especially in real-life samples, while the interfacing as such and analyte detectabilities in standard solutions are only briefly discussed. This article covers an extensive fraction of the literature published on this topic until the beginning of 1998.

Coupling of reversed-phase liquid column chromatography and fourier transform infrared spectrometry using postcolumn on-line extraction and solvent elimination.

An on-line postcolumn extraction module was used in conjunction with a solvent elimination interface for the semi-on-line coupling of reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR). The extraction module consisted of a phase segmentor, an extraction coil, and a phase separator. Dichloromethane was used as extraction solvent. The organic phase delivered by the separator was evaporated by a spray-jet assembly that simultaneously deposited the extracted analytes onto a zinc selenide window, which was subsequently analyzed by FT-IR microscopy. The method is evaluated by studying parameters such as postcolumn band broadening, phase separation efficiency, evaporation efficiency, extraction yield, eluent composition, and use of nonvolatile buffer salts. Good-quality spectra were obtained for test compounds (phenylureas and quinones), which were separated by RP-LC using a buffered eluent with high water content. Large-volume injections allowed FT-IR detection at the submicrogram per milliliter level.

On-line dialysis-SPE-CE of acidic drugs in biological samples.

A fully automated method is presented for the determination of acidic drugs in urine and serum using on-line dialysis-solid-phase extraction (SPE)-capillary electrophoresis (CE) with UV detection. With non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as test compounds, detection limits in the biological samples were 0.05-1.0 microgram ml-1. Calibration plots were linear over two orders of magnitude and the within-day and between-day repeatability were better than 10%. The CE capillary and SPE column were used for over 500 analyses; the dialysis membrane was replaced after 250 analyses. A general protocol for dialysis-SPE-CE which can be used for amphoteric and acidic drugs was devised. The present results show that this protocol has general validity and can be recommended for future work on other classes of drugs.

Pyrene biotransformation and kinetics in the hepatopancreas of the isopod Porcellio scaber.

Various techniques exist for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) determination in environmental samples, but an adequate risk assessment of PAHs should include aspects such as bioavailability of the contaminant and biotransformation capacity of the species under investigation. In this study, we provided an analysis of the kinetics of pyrene in the terrestrial isopod Porcellio scaber. Isopods were exposed to pyrene in their food (10 microg/g d/w) for 7 days followed by an elimination period of 7 days. The animals were dissected, and the hepatopancreases were analyzed for pyrene biotransformation products; nonmetabolised pyrene in the gut was also monitored. Concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene in the hepatopancreas were very low. Almost all of the pyrene was found as three conjugates: pyrene-1-glucoside, pyrene-1-sulfate, and a third unknown 1-hydroxypyrene conjugate. Concentrations of the metabolites were extremely variable between individuals because of variable feeding activity. An apparent steady state was reached already after 24 hours of exposure, whereas elimination was complete 48 hours after ending the exposure. This rapid response to changes in the exposure concentration shows that terrestrial isopods have a high biotransformation capacity for PAHs. The data show that concentrations of parent PAHs will not provide a good indication of exposure in rapidly metabolizing invertebrates such as isopods; instead, pyrene metabolites may be considered a promising biomarker for bioavailability of PAH contamination in the field.

Capillary electrophoresis of the collagen crosslinks HP and LP utilizing absorbance, wavelength-resolved laser-induced fluorescence and conventional fluorescence detection.

A capillary electrophoretic (CE) method is presented for the determination of the collagen crosslinks hydroxylysylpyridinoline (HP) and lysylpyridinoline (LP). Various detection techniques are compared, i.e. UV-Vis diode-array absorbance detection (DAD) and fluorescence detection both in the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and the conventional fluorescence mode. LIF detection was performed using a frequency-doubled Rhodamine dye laser pumped by an excimer laser, for excitation at 290 and 325 nm. The emission was measured with an intensified diode-array detector mounted on a spectrograph to obtain wavelength-resolved spectra. Relevant concentration detection limits were achieved only by using LIF detection, i.e. 200 nM of HP and LP in a 30 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.0). Linear calibration curves were obtained from the detection limits up to the maximum concentration available, 23 microM for HP and 4.2 microM for LP, respectively for both fluorescence modes. The identity of the migrating compounds was confirmed by on-line recording of both the absorption and the fluorescence spectra.

On-line dialysis solid-phase extraction coupled to capillary electrophoresis.

A fully automated dialysis solid-phase extraction (SPE) sample preparation procedure is coupled on-line to capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the first time. The system is used to determine sulfonamides in serum and urine. The dialysis unit serves to remove proteins and particulate matter. Reconcentration of the analytes is performed with a small SPE column while (in)organic salts and other interferences are removed simultaneously. Finally, the analytes are desorbed and injected, via a homemade interface, into the CE system. Limits of detection (LOD) of 0.05-0.1 and 0.05-0.3 microg/mL are obtained in urine and serum, respectively. The within-day and between-day precisions are in the range of 2-6% and 3-8%, respectively, for a concentration of five times the LOD. The dialysis SPE-CE system was used over a period of six months for the analysis of over 500 serum and urine samples without problems such as clogging of the CE capillary or SPE column.