JPH06160271A - Flow cell - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a flow cell for liquid chromatography, especially for dispenser liquid chromatography, in which flow rate of liquid is increased without sacrifice of separating function and thereby separation processing capacity is enhanced greatly. CONSTITUTION:A flow regulation valve 4 is provided in a bypath 3 detouring the channel 2 of measuring part, i.e., a flow cell body 7. The flow regulation valve 4 is regulated manually or automatically to ensure lower limit pressure thus preventing blockage of the flow cell channel 2 due to pressure drop caused by the bypath 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid chromatography device, particularly a preparative liquid chromatography device,
The present invention relates to a flow channel structure capable of remarkably increasing a sorting capacity by increasing a flow rate that can pass through.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cell used for measuring absorbance is a container for measuring the absorption characteristics of each separated sample, and a liquid is continuously passed through this container. The method of transmitting the measurement light through this cell and measuring the amount of light absorption from the difference in the amount of light between the inlet side and the outlet side is so-called "OD measurement" and is widely used.

In this cell, members having excellent light transmissivity are usually opposed to each other with a slight distance therebetween, and a tube for letting a liquid in and out is made to communicate with the space surrounding the void at that time. This distance is set to a very small value in consideration of the fact that a sample with a small amount passes.

[0004]

However, when this distance is made small, the pressure loss at the time of passage becomes very large, so that it is impossible to pass a large flow rate.

The demand for passing a large flow rate is particularly strong when the device is used for preparative separation, and in the current situation where it takes a lot of time just to pass through the cell portion, it is naturally difficult to carry out efficient preparative separation. It was

Further, a flow path that bypasses the flow cell flow path is provided by a tube before and after the flow cell portion, and the thickness of the tube is changed according to the viscosity of the separated liquid, the flow rate and other conditions to adjust the liquid pressure. There is a way to do it, but the tube replacement work was very tedious and unreasonable.

Therefore, there has been awaited the advent of an apparatus capable of increasing the flow rate and accurately performing sorting / analysis without adversely affecting the measurement accuracy of the cell itself even if the viscosity of the separated liquid and other conditions change.

[0008]

The present inventor has finally accomplished the present invention as a result of many years of earnest research in view of the above points, and is characterized in that it is used in the separation step of a liquid chromatography apparatus. This is a flow cell for measuring absorbance, which has a bypass flow path that bypasses the flow path of the flow cell main body that is the measurement unit, and a flow rate adjusting valve is provided in the bypass flow path.

Here, the "flow cell body" is a container for identifying the separated liquids by measuring the absorbance of the separated liquids that have passed through the column, and it is determined here. Based on the information obtained, operate the collection equipment such as the fraction collector and change the container to be taken out. The measurement is performed by transmitting the measurement light through the container and measuring the difference in light quantity between the entrance side and the exit side. In this case, if the substance has a large absorbance, only a very small amount of light reaches the outlet side, so that a device with extremely high measurement accuracy is required and it cannot be said to be suitable. Therefore, the flow cell body itself is usually thin. Then, the result is that the resistance when the liquid moves in this becomes large. Therefore, the origin of the present invention is to provide a bypass flow path to supplement the flow rate.

The "bypass channel" is a channel in which each separated liquid or the like is provided in a parallel relationship with the passage of the flow cell body, and the present invention is extremely effective for efficient sorting. Is the most characteristic part of. Since the flow cell body is in charge of which separated liquid is the liquid passing through the bypass flow passage, it is not necessary to determine the liquid inside the bypass flow passage.

A flow rate adjusting valve is provided here so as to adjust the pressure in the bypass passage so that fractionation can be performed under efficient conditions. The structure of the flow control valve itself is
Although not particularly limited, the liquid can move on the flow cell channel side at a certain pressure or more (the reason will be described in the next section), so that a manual type with a pressure gauge is sufficient.

[0012] Increasing the throughput of the fractionation is nothing but increasing the amount of movement of the liquid separated by the column per unit time. For that purpose, the bypass flow path, which is a bypass, is thickened. The more you do it, the better the efficiency. However, if the bypass flow path is thickened,
The pressure drops. When the pressure drops, the liquid becomes difficult to move inside the flow cell body where the pressure loss is large. Therefore,
If the pressure is the lowest that can be moved in the flow cell body, the amount of liquid that moves is the maximum, and the efficiency is the highest. However, below that pressure, the flow cell itself does not function properly, there is some fluctuation in the pressure itself, and even if the pressure is set slightly higher, there is no problem other than the movement amount decreasing, so set it somewhat higher. If you do
Frequent valve operation is not required and the work can be simplified.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a flow cell 1 according to the present invention (hereinafter referred to as a flow cell 1 of the present invention).
As is clear from the figure, the flow cell 1 of the present invention has a bypass flow passage 3 that bypasses the flow cell main body side flow passage 2 that passes through the measuring device.

A flow rate adjusting valve 4 is provided in the bypass passage 3. Adjustment of this flow rate adjusting valve 4
This is a type in which the pressure gauge 6 provided in the column side flow path 5 is visually observed and manually operated. That is, since the pressure gradually increases as the flow rate adjusting valve 4 is closed, the optimum pressure is when the pressure becomes equal to or higher than the specified pressure (pressure at which the liquid can move in the flow cell body 7). If the pressure is raised too much, the throughput of the liquid will decrease because the amount of liquid passing through will decrease.

[0016]

As described in detail above, the flow cell according to the present invention is a flow cell for measuring absorbance used in the separation step of a liquid chromatography device, and is a bypass flow path that bypasses the flow path of the flow cell main body, which is the measurement unit. And a flow rate adjusting valve is provided in the bypass flow path, which is a very advanced invention having various effects as described below. Since the liquid moves through the bypass flow path at the same moving speed as the liquid passing through the flow cell body, a large flow rate can be flowed and the processing capacity is remarkably improved. When the conditions change and the pressure changes, the optimum flow rate adjustment can be performed only by adjusting the opening degree of the flow rate adjustment valve in the bypass flow passage. No complicated work such as tube replacement is required, and the work is simple.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow sheet showing an example of a flow cell according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 flow cell 2 flow cell main body side flow path 3 bypass flow path 4 flow rate adjusting valve 5 column side flow path 6 pressure gauge 7 flow cell main body

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flow cell for measuring absorbance used in a separation step of a liquid chromatography apparatus, the flow cell having a bypass flow path that bypasses a flow path of a flow cell main body, which is a measurement unit, and having a flow rate in the bypass flow path. A flow cell provided with a regulating valve.