CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ELEMENT-SPECIFIC DETECTOR FOR COMBINED GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY ATOMIC-EMISSION DETECTION

An element-specific detector using a capacitively coupled plasma devel oped recently for gas chromatography was characterized according to th e accepted terms of gas chromatographic detectors. The most important detector parameters, sensitivity, linearity, limit of detection, linea r range and selectivity, were determined for channels of four elements , carbon, chlorine, bromine and sulphur, with a view to potential appl ications. The parameters obtained were compared, as permitted by the d ifferent mechanisms of operation, with some common gas chromatographic detectors of similar application. The characteristics of the detector were evaluated independently of application.