[Development and evaluation of a novel three-dimensional adjustable confocal laser-induced fluorescence detector]

Laser-induced fluorescence detector (LIFD) is one of the most sensitive detectors in analytical chemical files. Confocal optical configuration is widely used in LIFDs. Two effective approaches used to achieve the best signal to noise ratio (S/N) are increasing the confocal precision and minimizing the background noise. A novel three-dimensional adjustable confocal LIFD was developed, using a new three-dimensional adjustable supporter of reflector and modularized optical system. A detection limit (S/N = 3) of 1 x 10(-12) mol/L and a linear dynamic range of 3 orders of magnitude were obtained using fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) standard as the test sample. The noise level and drift levels were 8.0 x 10(-3) mV and 1.4 x 10(-3) mV/h, respectively, which were almost 10 times lower than before. And the stability of the LIFD was evaluated by five replicate injections of 5 x 10(-9) mol/L FITC, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of peak height and peak area were 0.38% and 0.41%, respectively. Further more, three biogenic amines, which were derivatized by FITC, were separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and then detected by the novel LIFD. And the detection limits (S/N = 3) ranged 0.01 to 0.02 nmol/L, which were better than other methods. Therefore, the LIFD is highly sensitive, as well as shows a real low noise level and good reproducibility.