Nine orders of magnitude dynamic range: picomolar to millimolar concentration measurement in capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection employing cascaded avalanche photodiode photon counters.
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ABSTRACT: The dynamic range of capillary electrophoresis analysis is ultimately limited by molecular shot noise at low concentrations and by concentration-induced band broadening at high concentrations. We report a system that approaches these fundamental limits. A laser-induced fluorescence detector is reported that employs a cascade of four fiber-optic beam splitters connected in series to generate a primary signal and four attenuated signals, each monitored by a single-photon counting avalanche photodiode. Appropriate scaling of the signals from the five photodiodes produces a linear optical calibration curve for 5-carboxyl-tetramethylrhodamine from the concentration detection limit of 1 pM to the upper limit of 1 mM. Mass detection limits are 120 yoctomoles (70 molecules) injected into the instrument. The very-wide dynamic range instrument was used to study the metabolic products of the fluorescently labeled glycosphingolipid tetramethylrhodamine labeled GM1 (GM1-TMR) produced by single cells isolated from the rat cerebellum.
SUBMITTER: Dada OO
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3072807 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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