Dual optical detection and multivariate analysis

The application of flow injection analysis into the simultaneous determination of two or more components has been challenging for many years. Various detectors such as ultraviolet/visible absorption, fluorescence, and electrochemical detectors, have been used individually or in combination with each other. Combining two optical detectors such as fluorescence and ultraviolet/visible absorbance, however, has always been challenging due to their incompatibilities. However, the recent developments in fibre optics, solid-state light sources and miniaturised charged coupled devices (CCD), allow novel designs and most of the incompatibilities be circumvented. A flow injection manifold can now be adapted so that only one flow cell is used along with a diode array CCD detector that can detect both fluorescence and absorbance simultaneously. The initial development and testing of such dual detection system is described in this thesis. [Continues.]