Absorbance detector for capillary electrophoresis based on light-emitting diodes and photodiodes for the deep-ultraviolet range

• The new deep-UV LED based detector has a reference beam.
• Its performance was evaluated with LEDs of 255 and 280 nm.
• Excellent low baseline noise, stability and linearity were achieved.
• The compact detector is suitable for battery operated portable instruments.

A new absorbance detector for capillary electrophoresis featuring relatively high intensity light-emitting diodes as radiation sources and photodiodes for the deep-UV range was developed. The direct relationship of absorbance values and concentrations was obtained by emulating Lambert-Beer's law with the application of a beam splitter to obtain a reference signal and a log-ratio amplifier circuitry. The performance of the cell was investigated at 255 nm with the detection of sulfanilic, 4-nitrobenzoic, 4-hydroxybenzoic and 4-aminobenzoic acid and the indirect detection of acetate, propionate, butyrate and caproate using benzoate as the displacement dye molecule. Vanillic acid, L-tyrosine and DL-tryptophan as well as the sulfonamides sulfamerazine, sulfathiazole and sulfamethazine were determined at 280 nm. Good linearities over 3 orders of magnitude were obtained. The noise level recorded was as low as 50 μAU and the drift typically <200 μAU/5 min.