Forward-scattering degenerate four-wave mixing as a potential laser-based absorption detection method in liquid separation systems: Coupling to conventional-size liquid chromatography

An explorative study on the compatibility of liquid separation systems, such as (micro) liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), and forward-scattering degenerate four-wave mixing (F-D4WM) as a detection method is presented. F-D4WM is a laser-based technique showing some analogy with holographic spectroscopy: a signal on a theoretical dark background is observed as a result of light absorption by an analyte. Parameters considered are solvent composition focussing on acetonitrile, methanol and water; mobile phases in LC and CE), detector cell construction, and influences of laser beam powers. A specially designed detector cell has been developed to meet the Brewster condition, both at the air-quartz and the quartz-liquid boundaries. For practical reasons, the tested cell has an optical pathlength of 1 mm; reduction to 100 μm is required to apply the cell in microseparations. The F-D4WM technique has been involved for detection in a conventional-size, reversed-phase LC separation of 1- and 2-aminoanthraquinones. The detection limit obtained (for the 1 mm cell) is 2 × 10−5 absorbance units. The experiments indicate that further reduction of background deserves explicit attention.