Applied Photophysics Ltd

Real-life Pro-Data Upgrade Case Study 2 - Photodiode Array and Glove-box Instruments

This SX18 instrument was installed in 2001. The main application of the instrument requires photodiode array measurement of reagents in an anaerobic environment. Prior to the upgrade the instrument appeared as shown below. Operating in a glove-box presents a number of challenges and in addition to the obvious software benefits, the Pro-Data upgrade provided some significant instrument handling improvements. One major benefit of the upgrade was a simplification of the cabling inside the box facilitating simpler instrument reconfiguration when switching optical pathlength or changing between PDA and PMT detection. Perhaps the most significant benefit concerns the photodiode array operation with the introduction of a software based gain control for optimisation of the PDA sensitivity. Previously this delicate operation had to be carried out using a screw driver in a difficult to access region of the glove box.

Example2 Picture 1

Following the upgrade, the operating console benefited from removal of the clumsy stack of photometric control unit and computer. The new PC is linked to the Electronics Unit via a fibre-optic cable making the console more manoeuvrable and allowing the electronics unit to be housed below the glove box. Inside the glove-box, the ten cables previously required for stopped-flow operation have been reduced to five to provide more freedom for operations inside the glove-box.

Example2 Picture 2

Example2 Picture 3

The close-up picture of the sample handling unit on the right emphasises the improved cabling arrangement and the redundant cabling (28m in total):

Photodiode array operation is vastly improved with the Pro-Data upgrade which offers both increased performance and user-friendliness. The following benefits are available with the Pro-Data software:

  • The Pro-Data SX software features a single control panel for both PDA and PMT control, eliminating the need to switch between the old SX18 and XScan control software on the Acorn.

  • Pro-Data SX provides the user with greater flexibility in terms of data acquisition parameters. A new split-timebase function allows fast and slow reaction phases to be monitored with an appropriate number of scans. The number of scans is now user-definable too.

  • Pro-Data SX offers a multiple drive repeat option. All data files are saved to a user-defined destination directory.

  • Pro-Data SX can collect up to 1000 spectra per second as opposed to 780 with XScan.

  • Pro-Data SX features a software based gain control for optimising the sensitivity of the PDA unit for measurements carried out using different pathlengths, lamps (xenon or deuterium) or even specific spectral ranges.

  • Each PDA dataset is displayed immediately in the standard Pro-Data Viewer software. Multiple datasets may be open at any time for comparative purposes.

  • Pro-Data Viewer offers great flexibility for displaying and analysing data. Data may be displayed in either time or wavelength domains as single or multiple traces. Single wavelength traces can be fitted immediately using the standard Pro-Data algebraic fitting algorithm.

  • Data files can be rapidly exported to Pro-K for global analysis.

Other example installations.

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