Evaporative light scattering detection: trends in its analytical uses

Abstract

Evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) is widely recognized as a universal tool for liquid and supercritical chromatographies. In addition, this detection technique is fully compatible with continuous-flow systems. In fact, the combination of continuous non-chromatographic techniques and ELSD affords the design of simple, reliable systems for extracting qualitative information. This paper reviews instrumental innovations regarding the miniaturization of evaporative light scattering detectors and their uses in micro and capillary liquid chromatography; also, it discusses their increasingly important role in the development of vanguard configurations for sample screening and the determination of total indices without the need for chromatographic separation. Moreover, it compares them with other types of chromatographic detectors in terms of performance. Finally, the potential of ELSD for solving real-life analytical problems arising from the need to meet (bio)chemical information needs is illustrated with various selected applications.

Species discrimination of Radix Bupleuri through the simultaneous determination of ten saikosaponins by high performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

“…The universal response of ELSD allows a concentration to be obtained for all analytes irrespective of their optical properties with the added advantage that eluent requirements, including mobile-phase evaporation, are similar to those of MS [21]. Therefore, the HPLC-ELSD chromatographic conditions were properly transferred to the HPLC-MS method.…”

“…Due to the lack of chromophores, the major saikosaponins (saikosaponin-a, -c, and -d), are detected below 220 nm (usually 203-210 nm) using HPLC-UV methods, thereby limiting the use of diverse solvents as the mobile phase. Recently, an evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) was used as a valuable alternative to UV detection [21]. ELSD evaporates the mobile phase and measures the amount of light scattered by the remaining solid analyte particles.…”

Development of Evaporative Light Scattering Detector for Capillary Electrochromatography and Capillary Liquid Chromatography

“…It was reported that in light scattering detection signal response is directly related to the light intensity, amplifying the source intensity results in a proportional, detrimental increase in noise. 21 Herein it was found that light intensity had no influences on S/N as it increased proportionally with both signal and noise. Therefore, the light source was selected as a polychromatic 650 nm laser diode at 20 mW.…”

Recent developments in qualitative and quantitative analysis of phytochemical constituents and their metabolites using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…Based on the chemical and physical properties of specific compounds, a number of different detection techniques including ultraviolet detection (UV) or photodiode array detection (DAD), fluorescence detection (FD), refractive index (RI), evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) and mass spectrometry (MS) have been used for detecting the components in mixtures [27][28][29][30]. Compared to other detection methods, MS can not only allow determination of chemical structure of natural compounds with known and unknown structures, but also offers excellent sensitivity.…”