Patent Document ID: 9689786
Application ID: 14410019
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. Method for determining the size distribution of a mixture of molecule or particle species comprising the following steps: injecting a sample of the mixture to be analyzed inside a capillary in which an eluent is flowing; transporting the sample injected along the capillary from an injection section to a detection section thereof, in experimental conditions suitable to generate a Taylor dispersion phenomenon that is measurable at the level of the detection section; generating, by means of a suitable sensor included in the detection section, a signal characteristic of the Taylor dispersion of the transported sample; processing the detection signal in order to obtain an experimental Taylor signal Åœ(t); and analyzing the experimental Taylor signal Åœ(t), wherein the step of analyzing an experimental Taylor signal Åœ(t) of a sample of the mixture consists of searching an amplitude distribution P(G (c) ) that allows the experimental Taylor signal Åœ(t) to be broken down into a sum of Gaussian functions by means of the equation I: 
 {circumflex over ( S )}( t )â‰¡âˆ« 0 âˆž P ( G (c) ) G (c) c/2 exp[âˆ’( tâˆ’t 0 ) 2 G (c) c ] dG (c) (I) where t is a variable upon which the experimental Taylor signal depends and t 0 is a value of the variable t common to the various Gaussian functions and corresponding to the peak of the experimental Taylor signal Åœ(t); G (c) is a characteristic parameter of a Gaussian amplitude function P(G (c) ) and is associated: where c=1, with the diffusion coefficient D of a species according to the relation 
 G (1) =12 D /( R c 2 t 0 ) for c=âˆ’1, to the hydrodynamic ray R h of a species according to the relation G ( - 1 ) = 2 â¢ â¢ k B â¢ T Ï€ â¢ â¢ Î· â¢ â¢ R c 2 â¢ t 0 â¢ R h - 1 ; and for c=âˆ’1/d f =âˆ’(1+a)/3, to the molar mass M of a species according to the relation G = 2 â¢ â¢ k B â¢ T Ï€ â¢ â¢ Î· â¢ â¢ R c 2 â¢ t 0 â¢ ( 10 â¢ â¢ Ï€ â¢ â¢ N a 3 â¢ â¢ K ) 1 / 3 â¢ M - ( 1 + a 3 ) , where k B is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature expressed in Kelvins at which the experiment is conducted, Î· is the viscosity of the eluent used, R c is the internal ray of the capillary used, N a is Avogadro's number, and K and a are Mark Houwink coefficients, by implementing a constrained regularization algorithm consisting of minimizing a cost function H Î± including at least one constraint term associated with a constraint that must observe the amplitude distribution P(G (c) ) that is the solution of the foregoing equation, whereby the minimization is carried out on an interval of interest of the values of the parameter G (c) .