Photooxygenation-chemiluminescence high-performance liquid chromatographic detector for the determination of aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes, ethers and saccharides

Abstract

A novel chemiluminescene high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) detector capable of quantitating many oxygen-containing compounds that cannot be determined by either absorption or fluorescence has been developed in our laboratory. The photooxygenation chemiluminescence (POCL) detector functions by first oxygenating the analytes —aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, and saccharides— in a photochemical reaction to produce H 2O 2. The H 2O 2 is then quantitated in the cobalt(II)–luminol chemiluminescence reaction. Since the photochemical reaction is sensitized by anthraquinonedisulfonate, the analytes themselves need not absorb light. The sensitivity of the detector varies for each analyte; however, the detection limits of most analytes are in the low microgram range. This paper demonstrates the use of this detector coupled to HPLC and presents optimization studies of the photochemistry and the chemiluminescence.