ABSTRACT
Capillary column liquid chromatography can provide the resolution needed to separate the complex mixtures of large, polar, and thermally labile compounds which are frequently found in technologically and biologically important samples. Since slurry-packed capillary columns generally exhibit chromatographic peak widths of 30 s or more, little band broadening is introduced by the detector. In the separation of complex mixtures, it is important to maintain the full resolving power of the slurry-packed capillary column, and therefore the detector itself can add little extra column broadening to the chromatographic system. The miniaturized, rapid-scan rapid-scanning intensified photodiode array system described has, however, been able to maintain excellent chromatographic efficiency without sacrificing the detection sensitivity. In the application of a miniaturized photodiode array fluorescence detector, samples which contain a complex mixture of structurally similar aromatic compounds derive the most benefit from its unique capabilities.
