Malvern Zetasizer Nano Series, Accessories Manual

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Flow-mode option Chapter 4
Zetasizer Nano accessories guide Page 4-9
Controlling the flow-mode measurement
via an SOP
Once the Flow-mode option has been connected to the required size exclusion
chromatography (
SEC ) system, a measurement can be made. This is done using an
SOP, or a manual measurement in the usual manner.
The Flow -mode SOP enables measurements to be performed on a flowing sample
stream. The scattered light intensity and hydrodynamic diameter can be plotted as a
trend, and, with the addition of optional external input windows, information from
external measuring sources, such as a refractive index detector, can be monitored
and displayed.
An SOP can be configured to control all settings for the accessories automatically.
A Flow-mode measurement follows the same SOP format as performed when
doing a normal size measurement, with a few exceptions. When a size
measurement is chosen some extra dialogues - External Input 1/2 and Flow
settings - will be included in the SOP selections.
The SOP Editor and setup is described in full in the Zetasizer Nano user
manual . Most of the SOP sections are common to Measurement types, and these
are described in the above manual. The other SOP sections are specific to the flow
measurement being performed; these are described below. Also note that some of
the other dialogue pages will alter slightly to accommodate extra parameters
necessary to perform the flow measurement.
Creating or editing an SOP - Measurement type
selection

To create a new SOP, select File-New SOP .
To edit an existing SOP, choose Open-SOP .
This will open up the SOP editor. The SOP editor consists of several dialogues
that can be stepped through by using the
Next arrow button.

Complete the SOP editor as described in the Zetasizer Nano user manual.

Once the SOP has been created, press Finish and save the new SOP.
Note
To improve the stability of temperature control when using the system as a
Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) detector, the measurement tem-
perature should be set to be 5°C or greater, above or below the ambient
temperature.