Expoiting the Gradient
As the sample zone (red) disperses while it travels downstream, a concentration gradient is formed. This gradient can be viewed as integral of numerous individual section, each of them comprising a different concentration of an analyte. This provides an opportunity to select an optimum concentration when perorming an automated assay.
- Zone sampling is a mechanical approach that relies on a valve to divert a desired diluted section from the mainstream to a secondary manifold for further processing.
- Electronic dilution is based on capturing a readout from the section of the peak, rather from the peak maximum. This is useful, when high analyte concentration causes the readout to be outside the detector range.
- Stop flow is the most useful and frequently used approach as it facilitates fiding optimized conditions for the reaction rate-based assays.
1.2.23.
The potential of the gradient based technique remains unexplored and its versatility, as a tool for automated exploration of reaction rates of chemical, biochemical and biological processes still has to be discovered an applied.
