Microfluidic integration of photonic crystal fibers for online photochemical reaction analysis.
Liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) are perfect optofluidic channels, uniquely providing low-loss optical guidance in a liquid medium. As a result, the overlap of the dissolved specimen and the intense light field in the micronsized core is increased manyfold compared to conventional bioanalytical techniques, facilitating highly-efficient photoactivation processes. Here we introduce a novel integrated analytical technology for photochemistry by microfluidic coupling of a HC-PCF nanoflow reactor to supplementary detection devices. Applying a continuous flow through the fiber, we deliver photochemical reaction products to a mass spectrometer in an online and hence rapid fashion, which is highly advantageous over conventional cuvette-based approaches.
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Guenther-Scharowsky-Str. 1/Bldg. 24, Erlangen, Germany. sarah.unterkofler@mpl.mpg.de
S
S
Unterkofler
R J
RJ
McQuitty
T G
TG
Euser
N J
NJ
Farrer
P J
PJ
Sadler
P St J
PS
Russell