Rapid Kinetics
One of the main rapid kinetics techniques is stopped-flow. Small volumes of solutions are rapidly driven from syringes into a mixer and observation cell. A fast reaction is initiated and recorded usually by spectroscopic techniques such as UV absorbance, fluorescence or circular dichroism. Fluorescence spectroscopy is probably the most commonly used detection method due to its high sensitivity.
Stopped flow instruments are used to study the chemical kinetics of a reaction in solution. An important factor is the time between the end of mixing the solutions and the beginning of observation in the cell. This is known as dead time which can be from less than a millisecond up to 1-2 milliseconds. Stopped flow instruments with detection by either circular dichroism or fluorescence is often used to observe rapid refolding of proteins.
Click here to contact usStopped flow instruments can be equipped with up to four syringes, one for the sample and two or three syringes for double or sequential mixing of reagents. Variable ratio mixing of sample and reagents is achieved by setting the required volumes via the controlling software. If required the sample and reagents can be retained under anaerobic and low temperature conditions.
In quenched flow instruments the reaction is stopped or quenched at a given time after mixing. Quenching can be achieved by mixing with another solution (chemical quenching), rapidly lowering the temperature (freeze quenching), or by exposing the sample to a specific wavelength of light (optical quenching).
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