EVALUATION AND APPLICATION OF SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY WITHELECTROLYTIC CONDUCTIVITY DETECTION

An electrolytic conductivity detector (E1CD) designed for use with cap illary GC columns has been coupled with a capillary supercritical flui d chromatograph (SFC). Detector gas and solvent flows were optimized f or use with the capillary SFC system. When used with a large-volume (1 mu L) injection technique, the limit of detection for the system is 0 .25-5.0 ng/mu L for most of the compounds studied, corresponding to 0. 2-2 ng of chlorine injected, depending on the degree of chlorination o f the compound. Calibration curves are linear to an upper range of 50 - 80 ng/mu L of target compound. Soil samples spiked with mixtures of seven chlorinated phenols were analyzed by this SFC-E1CD system and th e results were compared with those obtained by GC-ECD.