Procedimentos analíticos baseados em medidas de quimiluminescência caracterizam-se por apresentar alta sensibilidade, baixos limites de detecção, ampla faixa de resposta linear e instrumentação simples. Uma das principais dificuldades relacionadas a este tipo de medida é maximizar a quantidade de radiação detectada, já que a emissão ocorre em todas as direções, o que dificulta o posicionamento adequado da cela de medida em relação ao sistema de detecção. Uma alternativa consiste na utilização de guias de ondas, que são dispositivos que conduzem a radiação emitida, minimizando perdas durante o transporte, tal como ocorre nos cabos de fibras ópticas. O acoplamento de sistemas de análises em fluxo com detecção por quimiluminescência é bastante conveniente, já que a mistura entre amostras a reagentes precisa ser rápida e altamente reprodutível, além de ser realizada a uma distância muito pequena do sistema de detecção, devido ao curto tempo de vida dos intermediários no estado excitado. Neste trabalho, é apresentada a avaliação de uma cela constituída por um guia de ondas para medidas de quimiluminescência. Estas ferramentas foram aplicadas à determinação de hipoclorito em amostras de líquido de Dakin por quimiluminescência empregando a reação de oxidação do luminol por hipoclorito. Também foi desenvolvido um procedimento analítico para a determinação de salbutamol, explorando a inibição da quimiluminescência da reação de oxidação de luminol por hipoclorito, caracterizando-se como uma alternativa promissora para a quantificação do fármaco. Em ambas as aplicações, os resultados foram concordantes com os obtidos por procedimentos de referência a nível de confiança de 95% / Analytical procedures based on chemiluminescence are characterized by high sensitivity, low detection limits, wide linear response ranges and simple instrumentation. One of the main troubles is to increase the amount of detected radiation, because emission occurs in all directions, making difficulty the positioning of the measurement cell in relation to the detection system. An alternative consists in the use of liquid-core waveguides, devices that constrain the emitted radiation, minimizing losses during the transport, in a similar way to optical fibers. Coupling flow analysis to chemiluminescence is attractive, because sample and reagents mixing needs to be fast, highly reproducible and accomplished close to the detector, in view of the short lifetime of the intermediates in the excited state. In this work, a cell constituted by a liquid-core waveguide was evaluated for chemiluminescence measurements. These tools were applied to the determination of hypochlorite in Dakin solution samples by chemiluminescence exploiting the oxidation of luminol by hypochlorite. An analytical procedure for salbutamol determination, exploiting the inhibition of chemiluminescence of luminol oxidation by hypochlorite, was developed, characterizing as a promising alternative for the quantification of this pharmaceutical substance. In both applications, results were in agreement to those obtained by reference procedures at the 95% confidence level

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Procedimentos analíticos baseados em medidas de quimiluminescência caracterizam-se por apresentar alta sensibilidade, baixos limites de detecção, ampla faixa de resposta linear e instrumentação simples. Uma das principais dificuldades relacionadas a este tipo de medida é maximizar a quantidade de radiação detectada, já que a emissão ocorre em todas as direções, o que dificulta o posicionamento adequado da cela de medida em relação ao sistema de detecção. Uma alternativa consiste na utilização de guias de ondas, que são dispositivos que conduzem a radiação emitida, minimizando perdas durante o transporte, tal como ocorre nos cabos de fibras ópticas. O acoplamento de sistemas de análises em fluxo com detecção por quimiluminescência é bastante conveniente, já que a mistura entre amostras a reagentes precisa ser rápida e altamente reprodutível, além de ser realizada a uma distância muito pequena do sistema de detecção, devido ao curto tempo de vida dos intermediários no estado excitado. Neste trabalho, é apresentada a avaliação de uma cela constituída por um guia de ondas para medidas de quimiluminescência. Estas ferramentas foram aplicadas à determinação de hipoclorito em amostras de líquido de Dakin por quimiluminescência empregando a reação de oxidação do luminol por hipoclorito. Também foi desenvolvido um procedimento analítico para a determinação de salbutamol, explorando a inibição da quimiluminescência da reação de oxidação de luminol por hipoclorito, caracterizando-se como uma alternativa promissora para a quantificação do fármaco. Em ambas as aplicações, os resultados foram concordantes com os obtidos por procedimentos de referência a nível de confiança de 95% / Analytical procedures based on chemiluminescence are characterized by high sensitivity, low detection limits, wide linear response ranges and simple instrumentation. One of the main troubles is to increase the amount of detected radiation, because emission occurs in all directions, making difficulty the positioning of the measurement cell in relation to the detection system. An alternative consists in the use of liquid-core waveguides, devices that constrain the emitted radiation, minimizing losses during the transport, in a similar way to optical fibers. Coupling flow analysis to chemiluminescence is attractive, because sample and reagents mixing needs to be fast, highly reproducible and accomplished close to the detector, in view of the short lifetime of the intermediates in the excited state. In this work, a cell constituted by a liquid-core waveguide was evaluated for chemiluminescence measurements. These tools were applied to the determination of hypochlorite in Dakin solution samples by chemiluminescence exploiting the oxidation of luminol by hypochlorite. An analytical procedure for salbutamol determination, exploiting the inhibition of chemiluminescence of luminol oxidation by hypochlorite, was developed, characterizing as a promising alternative for the quantification of this pharmaceutical substance. In both applications, results were in agreement to those obtained by reference procedures at the 95% confidence level

Biogeochemical changes across oceanic interfaces, and method development to study such changes, are described in this work. The interfaces studied include the Subtropical Front in the Pacific Ocean and the boundary at the base of the euphotic zone. Both interfaces are characterized by accumulations of phytoplankton, although the forcing functions that result in increased biomass are distinctly different. The Subtropical Front, located at approximately 30°N in the Pacific Ocean, was detected during a cruise in the summer of 2002 by its diagnostic 34.8 salinity outcrop, in spite of the absence of its associated temperature signature. The front displayed elevated concentrations of large diatoms; Rhizosolenia and Hemiaulus, with concentrations penetrating deeper in the water column south of the front. Rhizosolenia species were dominant on the warmer, high salinity side of the front, while Hemiaulus prevailed on the cooler, low salinity side. While high cell counts were enumerated by net tows, the elevated biomass was not visible in satellite color imagery. Size fractionated chlorophyll data revealed > 10 um cells were found below 200 m, indicating export of large cells out of the euphotic zone. This confirms observations by other investigators that fronts represent important regions of episodic export, although such export may go undetected if the biomass is not visible in ocean color images. Another region of interest was the narrow layer at the base of the euphotic zone. During stratified conditions, the layer was characterized by a fluorescence maximum, a primary nitrite maximum, and a nutricline. While fluorescence maxima have proven easy to detect using commercial fluorometers, nutrient distributions have proven more difficult. The Spectrophotometric Elemental Analysis System (SEAS) permitted detection of low concentrations of nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate with nanomolar sensitivity and 1 Hz or better sampling frequency. Using multiple wavelength spectroscopy, the range of nitrate concentrations from 2 nM to 20 uM have been detected. Profiles of nitrite obtained across the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre revealed the close correlation between nitrite and chlorophyll fluorescence maxima, suggesting that the nitrite maximum is formed by phytoplankton when insufficient light is available to permit reduction of nitrite to ammonia.

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy has been used over the last twenty years as a highly sensitive absorption spectroscopic technique to measure light attenuation in gases, liquids, and solid samples. An optical cavity is used as a multi-pass cell, and the decay time of the light intensity in the cavity is measured, thereby rendering the techniques insensitive to light intensity fluctuations. Optical waveguides are used to build the optical cavities presented in this work. The geometries of such waveguides permit the use of very small liquid sample volumes while retaining the advantages of cavity ring-down spectroscopy. In this thesis cavity ring-down measurements are conducted, both, in the time domain and by measuring phase-shifts of sinusoidally modulated light, and the two methods are theoretically connected using a simple mathematical model, which is then experimentally confirmed. A new laser driver, that is compatible with high powered diode lasers, has to be designed to be able to switch from time domain to frequency domain measurements. A sample path length enhancement within the optical cavity is explored with the use of liquid core waveguides. The setup was optimised with respect to the matrix liquid, the geometrical matching of waveguide geometries, and the shape of liquid core waveguide ends. Additionally, a new technique of producing concave lenses at fibre ends has been developed and the output of a general fibre lens is simulated. Finally, liquid core waveguides are incorporated into a fibre-loop ring-down spectroscopy setup to measure the attenuation of two model dyes in a sample volume of <1 µL. The setup is characterized by measuring concentrations of Allura Red AC and Congo Red from 1 µM to a limit of detection of 5 nM. The performance of the setup is compared to other absorption techniques measuring liquid samples. / Thesis (Ph.D, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-23 14:08:16.33