Ultraviolet thermal lensing detection of amino acids

Thermal lensing (TL) permits ultra-sensitive measurements of optical absorption of analytes in very small liquid volumes. We report the construction and use of a TL detector based on pulsed ultraviolet (UV) laser excitation (266 nm). We applied this detector to quantitate amino acids using capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a means of separation. Sixteen individual amino acids are readily detected, but the signal has a complex dependence on intensity caused by the combination of (1) one-photon absorption; (2) two-photon absorption (TPA); and (3) photodestruction of amino acid molecules in the focus of the laser beam. An aqueous solution containing tyrosine, tryptophan, and cysteine is electrophoretically separated and the individual amino acids are detected by UV TL. The estimated limit of detection is 7 μM for tyrosine, 2.5 μM for tryptophan and 33 μM for cysterine, which translates into 0.35 fmol for tyrosine, 0.125 fmol for tryptophan, and 1.65 fmol for cysteine in the 140 pL detection volume. It is found that two-photon absorption of water and the formation of color centers in the fused silica walls of the flowcell can contribute a significant, drifting background signal, but this interference can be minimized by selecting an appropriate focus condition and excitation–detection geometry. We suggest that as UV laser sources become available, UV TL may become a method of choice for measuring the concentrations of many analytes in different separation formats in which the volume is highly limited.