Abstract
This chapter reviews the refractive index (RI) detection methods that have been used to analyze carbohydrates separated by capillary high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). The most popular detection scheme used in capillary based separations is ultraviolet/visible (UV/vis) absorption using conventional lamps as light source followed by laser induced fluorescence (LIF). RI detection is a universal method useful in the mM– μ M range, which can be used with a wide spectrum of mobile phases or buffers. On-column RI detectors can be classified, according to their principle of operation, into deflection or interferometry types. Within the interferometric type, a further distinction can be made depending on the illumination arrangement—namely, the off-axis and the (on-axis) hologram methods. In the hologram method, the RI detector features a laser diode (LD), and as the main optical element, a holographic optical element (HOE) that performs several optical functions resulting in a considerable miniaturization of the detector and an improvement in its sensitivity.
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