Novel blue diode fluorescence detectors for capillary electrophoresis.

摘要

Advances in biomedical research are tightly bound to advances in technology. There is a growing demand for inexpensive instruments that improve sampling rate or low volume compatibility. The goal of this thesis is to develop compact and inexpensive fluorescence detectors for capillary electrophoresis, based on novel blue diode lasers.;Three of such detectors were built, characterized and used in multiple projects. The challenges blue diode lasers present to the instrument builder, as well as successful solutions to these challenges, are explained in detail in this thesis. The construction of a two beam research grade diode laser induced fluorescence detector is described, and the characterization of the capillary electrophoresis system utilizing this detector is shown. The wide spectrum of applications for this system is summarized, and two major ones, sampling from individual insects and rat retina are explained in more detail. Two more detectors, utilizing a collinear optical scheme, described as well. The collinear optics arrangement utilizes dichroic mirror to separate excitation and emission beam and allowed the construction of compact and robust detectors. Finally, one of the detectors, a light emitting diode induced fluorescence detector was applied to analysis of whole human saliva and resulted in the first reported capillary electrophoresis quantitation of methionine.