Shimadzu Scientific Instruments has published the technical report, Principles and Practical Applications of Evaporative Light Scattering Detection (ELSD)
In HPLC, refractive index detectors (RI detectors) have often been used as general-purpose detectors.
However, a number of disadvantages limit their use.
For example, they cannot be used for gradient analysis, the baselines they produce are susceptible to the influence of fluctuations in the ambient temperature, and it is sometimes not possible to detect target substances with short elution times.
The principle of evaporative light scattering detectors (ELSD), which solve these problems, is extremely simple.
The target components are converted to a fine spray by a nebuliser and heated so that only the mobile phase is evaporated.
Light is directed at the remaining target substances and the scattered light is detected.
ELSDs can detect almost all components that are less volatile than the mobile phase.
In addition to describing the operating principles and practical benefits of ELSDs, including a comparison to RI detectors, this report uses the ELSD-LTII to present a number of application examples, including the ability to support ultrahigh-speed analysis.
