ARS | Publication request: Design of a portable fluoroquinolone analyzer based on terbium-sensitized luminescence

Submitted to: Proceedings of SPIE
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: August 1, 2007
Publication Date: September 11, 2007
Citation: Chen, G. 2007. Design of a portable fluoroquinolone analyzer based on terbium-sensitized luminescence. Proceedings of SPIE.6756:675605-1-675605-7.

Technical Abstract: A portable fluoroquinolone (FQ) analyzer is developed in this laboratory based on terbium-sensitized luminescence (TSL). The optical, hardware and software design aspects are described in detail. A 327-nm light emitting diode (LED) is used in pulsed mode as the excitation source; and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) is used as the photodetector. In comparison to a conventional xenon flashlamp, LEDs offer several advantages such as lower cost, light weight, and lower power consumption, narrow emission bandwidths, and weak residual radiation. To counteract LEDs’ intrinsic disadvantages a variety of engineering measures are implemented including thermoelectric cooling, signal normalization and PMT gating. The instrument operation and data processing are controlled by a laptop computer running a custom LabVIEW program. The analytical performance of the instrument is evaluated using enrofloxacin (ENRO) as an analyte. At a weight of 14 pounds excluding the computer, this analyzer makes sensitive and selective field analysis possible.