Analytical Sciences

An Optical Rotatory Detector for High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Using Polarization Modulation

Atsushi YAMAMOTO,*¹ Mio KAWAI,*¹ Mitsunori SAKAMOTO,*² Shuji KODAMA,*³ and Kazuichi HAYAKAWA*⁴

*1 College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chubu University, 1200 Matsumoto, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan
*2 S Opt Japan, 4-11-6-306 Sekido, Tama, Tokyo 206-0011, Japan
*3 Toyama Institute of Health, 17-1 Nakataikoyama, Imizu, Toyama 939-0363, Japan
*4 Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan

A sensitive and variable-wavelength optical rotatory (OR) detector for high-performance liquid chromatography is presented. This design is entirely different from that of conventional OR detectors consisting of a crossed polarizer pair. By placing a polarizing prism and a retardation plate into a commercial circular dichroism (CD) detector, the OR signal was obtained. The Mueller matrix approach was used to prove the principle of the OR signal appearance. Sugars and 4-androstene-3,17-dione were chosen as test compounds. The limit of detection was below 0.5 µg of injected sucrose at 260 nm, which was superior to that obtained with a conventional OR detector. For 4-androstene-3,17-dione, which is CD active, and shows a large anomalous OR dispersion curve, our detector gave a large OR signal with approximately half the intensity of the CD signal at 340 nm.

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