Agilent InfinityLab LC Series VWD User Manual 108
8Test Functions
Cell Test
Cell Test
The cell test compares the intensity of the deuterium lamp measured by the
sample and reference diodes (unfiltered and not logarithmized) when the grating
is in the zero-order position. The resulting intensity ratio (sample:reference) is a
measure of the amount of light absorbed by the flow cell.
The test can be used to check for dirty or contaminated flow cell windows. When
the test is started, the gain is set to -1. To eliminate effects due to absorbing
solvents, the test should be done with water in the flow cell.
Limits: No real limit. The reason is that it depends on the position/alignment of
the reference side (beam splitter – reference slit – reference diode). Therefore
the reference side value can be higher/smaller than the sample side value.
With a clean cell the counts for sample and reference (photocurrent) are in the
same range. If the sample side shows much lower values than the reference side
the flow cell might have a problem.
Prerequisites
Flush the flow cell with a flow of 1 mL/min for at least 10 minutes.
1 Run the Cell-Test with Agilent Lab Advisor (for further information see
Online-Help of user interface).
Figure 28 Test – Results