The Corona Charged Aerosol Detector – A „Universal“ Detector for the Measurement of Non-volatile Components in Food, Natural Products and Supplements

The Corona® Charged Aerosol Detector® is a „universal“ mass-sensitive detector capable of measuring any non-volatile and many semi-volatile analytes. Its response is independent of chemical structure and does not require the analyte to possess a chromophore (a prerequisite for UV and fluorescence detection) or to be ionized (essential for MS detection). The Corona CAD is compatible with gradient elution, has a wide dynamic range (4+ orders of magnitude), high sensitivity (sub-nanogram), good reproducibility, and a predictable response independent of chemical structure. As discussed in this presentation, charged aerosol detection overcomes many of the limitations seen with other „universal“ detectors including evaporative light scattering, condensation nucleation light scattering, refractive index, and UV. Charged aerosol detection has great applicability to the measurement of foods, supplements, botanicals and natural products. Some of the topics I will discuss include the measurement of carbohydrates, profiling lipids, measurement of fat-soluble vitamins, analysis of antibiotics, examination of potential bioactives in foods and supplements, and the evaluation of the composition of supplements and botanicals.