Comprehensive light scattering detection for chromatography
We just installed a new powerful online detection system for our chromatography units. The system combines multi angle light scattering (MALS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and refractive index detectors. It strongly enlarges our capabilities in developing chromatographic separations for size-distributed macromolecules and nanoparticles. The combination of MALS and DLS gives us the opportunity to analyze on-line not only distributions of molar weights and sizes of small as well as large molecules and particles in the effluent of chromatographic columns. It also enables us deducing on structural properties and the behavior of such compounds in solution. The MALS/DLS system is a powerful complementation to our routinely applied detection principles (UV, CAD, MS, RI, conductivity, pH, and polarimetry).
The instrument is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) in the frame of the Collaborative Research Centre 1411 (SFB 1411) “Design of particulate products” where our group develops chromatographic processes for nanoparticle separations.