NOVEL PUMP FOR FLOW INJECTION ANALYSIS AND CHROMATOGRAPHY

THE RESEARCH IS BASED ON A NOVEL CONCEPT OF FLOW ANALYSIS, WHICH POSTULATES THAT THE LINEAR CONSTANT MONOTONOUS FLOW RATE AS NOW GENERALLY ADOPTED IN ALL TYPES OF FLOW ANALYSIS, CAN BE REPLACED BY A FLOW PATTERN, AS LONG AS THIS FLOW PATTERN CAN BE MAINTAINED AND STRICTLY REPRODUCED FROM ONE ANALYSIS CYCLE TO THE NEXT. THIS IN TURN ALLOWS USE OF A SINUSOIDAL FLOW, GENERATED BY A PAIRED SYRINGE PUMP OPERATED BY A CIRCULAR CAM DRIVE AND INTEGRATED WITH A MULTIPORT VALVE. SUCH CONSTRUCTION WILL BE MORE ROBUST AND RELIABLE, YET LESS EXPENSIVE AND MORE MAINTENANCE-FREE THAN EXISTING PUMPING SYSTEMS. IN PHASE I, A COMPUTER COMPATIBLE PROTOTYPE OF THE SINUSOIDAL FLOW PUMP WILL BE CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED TO VALIDATE ITS USEFULNESS FOR FLOW INJECTION ANALYSIS. THIS WILL INVOLVE WORK WITH SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETECTION, WHERE WELL ESTABLISHED COLORIMETRIC PROCEDURES CURRENTLY PERFORMED WITH THE AID OF PERISTALTIC PUMPS WILL BE INVESTIGATED IN ORDER TO TEST PRECISION AND ACCURACY OF THE ANALYZER, AS WELL AS TO OPTIMIZE THE PUMP DESIGN. IN PHASE II, THE VIABILITY OF THE SINUSOIDAL FLOW PUMP FOR AFFINITY CHROMATOGRAPHY AND PRE CHROMATOGRAPHIC SAMPLE CLEANUP WILL BE INVESTIGATED AND THE OPTIMUM PUMP DESIGN DEVELOPED IN PHASE I WILL BE USED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF IMPROVED PUMP PROTOTYPES TO ULTIMATELY BE USED FOR SERIAL PRODUCTION.