Flow cells
Fiber optics continue to have a revolutionary impact on design of FI instruments. The technology allowed us to remove the flow cell from the spectrophotometer housing, and to place it in the best position within the flow channel, a move which is the key component of the lab-on-valve design.
Indeed. fibre optics which became de mysterized can easily be home made for innovative flow cell designs not only for spectrophotometry but also for fluorescence and chemiluminescence.
Thus for UV-VIS spectrophotometry until recently, the 1 cm light path Z-cell (A) was the only available option, there are now low flow resistance and low volume fiber optic flow cells available, offering a light path range between 0.01 cm (B) and 50 cm (C). Thus, merely by changing a flow cell, the response can be adjusted to the analyte within almost three order of magnitude an option available not only for stand alobe flow cells but also for Lab-on-valve design (D).
1.4.10.
