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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Development of a field-portable thin-layer chromatography based chemical analyzer for cannabinoid sample analysis Ravishankara, Adithya
Abstract
Industrial cannabis production has been steadily growing over the past decade due to the legalization of recreational cannabis in many regions around the world. For both regulatory and quality purposes, companies must ensure that their products meet industry standards, generally quantified as concentration of cannabinoids. A separate group that faces similar requirements are farmer of cannabinoids as they seek to optimize yield during harvest. The gold standard for quantification of cannabinoids is done using an HPLC/LCMS and other chromatographic methods which are expensive. In this thesis a low-cost, automated, and field-portable quantitative chemical analyzer is developed based on thin-layer-chromatography (TLC). The working principle of the device involves using TLC to separate the various molecules in a mixture. Once separated two visualization methods are employed to selectively visualize the compounds. Analysis is performed by taking HDR pictures of the strip under both visualization methods and performing densitometric analysis using computer vision techniques (multi-spectral analysis). The output of this system provides compositional analysis of a complex mixture. The device is used to detect THC, THCA, CBD and CBDA. The performance of the device was evaluated and an overall accuracy of ±0.5 mg/mL is given in the range of 0.5 mg/mL to 5 mg/mL, which meets the error tolerance for industrial standards. A vaporization chamber is developed as well to measure the total concentration of the sample to ensure the sample concentration meets the device requirements. The vaporization chamber has a measurement accuracy of ±0.27 mg/mL. Due to the versatile nature of the device, other industries such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food are proposed as possible future targets.
Item Metadata
| Title |
Development of a field-portable thin-layer chromatography based chemical analyzer for cannabinoid sample analysis
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| Creator | |
| Supervisor | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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| Date Issued |
2021
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| Description |
Industrial cannabis production has been steadily growing over the past decade due to the legalization of recreational cannabis in many regions around the world. For both regulatory and quality purposes, companies must ensure that their products meet industry standards, generally quantified as concentration of cannabinoids. A separate group that faces similar requirements are farmer of cannabinoids as they seek to optimize yield during harvest. The gold standard for quantification of cannabinoids is done using an HPLC/LCMS and other chromatographic methods which are expensive. In this thesis a low-cost, automated, and field-portable quantitative chemical analyzer is developed based on thin-layer-chromatography (TLC). The working principle of the device involves using TLC to separate the various molecules in a mixture. Once separated two visualization methods are employed to selectively visualize the compounds. Analysis is performed by taking HDR pictures of the strip under both visualization methods and performing densitometric analysis using computer vision techniques (multi-spectral analysis). The output of this system provides compositional analysis of a complex mixture. The device is used to detect THC, THCA, CBD and CBDA. The performance of the device was evaluated and an overall accuracy of ±0.5 mg/mL is given in the range of 0.5 mg/mL to 5 mg/mL, which meets the error tolerance for industrial standards. A vaporization chamber is developed as well to measure the total concentration of the sample to ensure the sample concentration meets the device requirements. The vaporization chamber has a measurement accuracy of ±0.27 mg/mL. Due to the versatile nature of the device, other industries such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food are proposed as possible future targets.
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| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
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| Date Available |
2023-01-01
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| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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| Rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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| DOI |
10.14288/1.0406133
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| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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| Graduation Date |
2022-02
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| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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| Rights URI | |
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International