HPLC detectors: pulsed amperometric

Figure 1. HPLC analysis of product progression during hydrolysis of 0.25 % polygalacturonate by PGII. Aliquots were withdrawn from the reaction mixture at timed intervals and reactions were stopped by raising the pH of the sample to pH 8.0 by mixing with 1 volume 25 mM Na-phosphate pH 9.5. Gl to G5 indicate the oligogalacturonates with corresponding degree of polymerization. The vertical axis shows the responce of the pulsed amperometric detector and the horizontal axis the elution time. Times of sampling are indicated above the trace.

Figure 5. Selected HPLC elution profile of products obtained after incubation of 0.25% polygalacturonate with PGII, upper trace, and PGII H223A, lower trace, respectively, demonstrating the effect of the mutation on catalysis. G1 to G3 indicate the peaks of the corresponding oligogalacturonates. IS indicates the internal standard, glucuronate. The vertical axis shows the pulsed amperometric detector response while the horizontal axis shows the retention time.

Tabata, S. and Dohi, Y., An assay for oligo-(l—>4) —5(1—>4)-glucantransferase activity in the glycogen debranching enzyme system by using HPLC with a pulsed amperometric detector, Carb. Res., 230,179, 1992. 

An ECD measures the current generated by electroactive analytes in the HPLC eluent between electrodes in the flow cell. It offers sensitive detection (pg levels) of catecholamines, neurotransmitters, sugars, glycoproteins, and compounds containing phenolic, hydroxyl, amino, diazo, or nitro functional groups. The detector can be the amperometric, pulsed-amperometric, or coulometric type, with the electrodes made from vitreous or glassy carbon, silver, gold, or platinum, operated in the oxidative or reductive mode. Manufacturers include BSA, ESA, and Shimadzu. 

A comparative study of the analysis of aliphatic amines by GC-FID, GC-TSD and HPLC with refractive index detector (RID), using isopropylamine as internal standard, gave good results in all cases. Determination of trimethylamine oxide by HPLC with a pulsed amperometric detector was problematic136. 

Although tocopherols and tocotrienols can be detected by UV absorbance at 280 nm, fluorescence detection (excitation 294 nm and emission 326 nm), as shown in Figure 11.3, has proven to be a much more sensitive method. Electrochemical detection such as pulsed amperometric and coulometric (Uspitasari-Nienaber, 2002) has also proven to be sensitive and potentially valuable for the quantitative analysis of tocopherols and Tocotrienols (Abidi, 2000), especially for tocol analysis in blood and serum samples. HPLC mass detectors such as flame-ionization detectors, evaporative light-scattering detectors, and charged aerosol detectors have proven to be valuable for the quantitative analysis of many types of lipids, but because tocols have... 

The equipment widely used for the detection of carbohydrates in the HPLC method is the differential refractive index (RI) detector. The principle involved in this detection depends on the continuous measurement of the variation of the RIs of the mobile phase containing the samples with little or no chromophores such as carbohydrates, lipids, and other polymer compounds that do not absorb UV light. RI detection method presents high degree of reproducibility and is very convenient for the analysis of polysaccharides. However, other detectors such as evaporative light scattering detector and pulsed amperometric detector have been used for the detection of polysaccharides [100]. 

The refiactive index detectitm (RID), often used in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), is an interesting detection method in CE with a laser light source and a hmit of detection (LOD) in the micromolar range. Electrochemical detection (ECD) and pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) of sugars are common and effective methods used in HPLC. Some recait communications show that the sensitivity of these detection methods in CE have an approximately 1000-fold better LOD than RID. Unfortunately, these detectors (RID, ECD, and PAD) are not commercially available for CE at the moment... 

More recently, the availability of high performance anion exchange columns stable at high pH conditions and the development of the pulsed amperometric detector (PAD) (78,79) have introduced a most powerful method for the HPLC of higher oligosaccharides. Such a system was introduced by Rochline and Pohl (80), and commercialized into the Dionex system. 

The detection system employed, a pulsed amperometric detector, permits remarkable sensitivity (100 ppb), and provides the most sensitive workable commercially available detector yet developed for HPLC of under vatized carbohydrates. The drawback is that it requires strongly alkaline conditions for optimum carbohydrate oxidation (and detection). Eluants therefore contain high concentrations of non-volatile salts (typically sodium acetate and sodium hydroxide) and further structural elucidation or identification by e.g. mass spectroscopy and/or NMR requires prior desalting. The use of an anionic micromembrane suppressor downstream of the detector, thus converting the sodium hydroxide and sodium acetate to water and acetic acid, respectively, has been found satisfactory for NMR at 500 MHZ (86). However, with the inherent insensitivity of NMR and the low capacity of pellicular HPAEC columns, preparation for more sensitive analytical methods, e.g. MS, is desirable. Derivatization of fractionated oligosaccharides (either by methylation techniques or reductive coupling of 4-amino-ben oic acid ethyl ester, ABBE) and subsequent... 

All of the fat-soluble vitamins, including provitamin carotenoids, exhibit some form of electrochemical activity. Both amperometry and coulometry have been applied to electrochemical detection. In amperometric detectors, only a small proportion (usually <20%) of the electroactive solute is reduced or oxidized at the surface of a glassy carbon or similar nonporous electrode in coulometric detectors, the solute is completely reduced or oxidized within the pores of a graphite electrode. The operation of an electrochemical detector requires a semiaqueous or alcoholic mobile phase to support the electrolyte needed to conduct a current. This restricts its use to reverse-phase HPLC (but not NARP) unless the electrolyte is added postcolumn. Electrochemical detection is incompatible with NARP chromatography, because the mobile phase is insufficiently polar to dissolve the electrolyte. A stringent requirement for electrochemical detection is that the solvent delivery system be virtually pulse-free. 

Commercial electrochemical detectors whose cells are directly connectable to the postcolumn efflux of the HPLC apparatus are available from a number of manufacturers. This method of detection is comparable in sensitivity to detection by absorption spectroscopy when the amperometric circuit is operated as a DC pulse polarograph. 

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