Compensation of the baseline temperature fluctuations for autonomous CE-C4D instrument working in harsh environments

Abstract

One of the main problems of the remote complex sample analysis instrumentation is that such systems are susceptible to temperature fluctuations. Temperature regulation is energetically ineffective, and it is not used in most of the field portable analytical systems. Separations performed in a changing temperature environment provide electropherograms with considerable baseline fluctuations, resulting in significant errors in detection and integration of the peaks. This paper describes electropherogram baseline compensation that is suitable for the capillary electrophoresis-contactless conductivity detection analytical method. The baseline compensation utilizes linear or polynomial data processing methods, and can be programmed in-line using simple microcontroller, or on-line and off-line in data acquisition software. This method is targeted for field portable and autonomous analytical systems that are utilized in a fluctuating environment.

Keywords: Baseline compensation; Capillary electrophoresis; Contactless conductivity detection; Portable analytical instrumentation; Thermal fluctuations.