Development of a beta induced fluorescence detector and its application to environmental problems

A fluorescence detector in which beta particles from 147Pm are used as the exciting source has been developed and attached to a commercial high performance liquid chromatograph. The design and evaluation of a self-contained prototype beta-induced fluorescence (BIF) detector is described together with results obtained for normal and reversed-phase chromatography. A theoretical analysis of BIF is used to determine the factors which influence the sensitivity of the technique and equations are presented for the detector response and signal-to-noise ratios; such theoretical values are compared with experimentally determined values. The theory of BIF has been extended to include the quenching of fluorescence from excited solvent or dopant species by quenching agents. Expressions for the quenched beta-induced fluorescence (QBIF) response to efficient quenchers and the related signal-to-noise ratio are derived, and again experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions. After optimisation of the BIF detector, its application to the determination of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated. Full details of the development of an analytical procedure for the detection of PAHs at the ng 1-1 level in water are presented. Reversed-phase chromatographic detection is demonstrated by the application of the BIF technique to amino acid determination. (author)