Improvement in Fluorescence Sensitivity by Changing the Emission Slit Width of the FP-4020 Fluorescence Detector

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are comprised of aromatic rings and are produced by the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbon-containing materials such as diesel oil and coal. When using fluorescence detection, the sensitivity of the measurement can be increased by narrowing the detector’s emission slit width; when the excitation wavelength is close to fluorescence wavelength, narrowing the slit width increases the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. On the other hand, broadening the slit width can be an effective way to increase the S/N ratio when the excitation wavelength is far from the emission wavelength. In this application note, the fluorescence measurement of PAHs was performed using an HPLC system with an FP-4020 fluorescence detector to compare the effects of adjusting the emission slit width from 20 nm to 40 nm.