A sensitive photochemical reaction-capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection system for HPLC and its application in determination of Cyclosporin A

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) post-column photochemical reaction (PR) coupled capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector (C4D) was used for the first time in analysis of weak ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing, non-fluorescence and nonpolar compound. A series of conditions including the radiation power of light source, the length of the reaction tube and the thickness of detection tube were investigated. HPLC-PR-C4D system was successfully applied to the determination of Cyclosporin A (CsA). Consequently, under optimal conditions, the detection system exhibited a detection limit of 0.04 μg/mL and wide linear range from 0.5 μg/mL to 100 μg/mL for CsA detection. Application of the HPLC-PR- C4D system to pharmaceutical formulation and biological samples revealed the system developed maybe reliably applied to clinical studies.