MEASUREMENT OF RADIATION-INDUCED LOCALIZED ABSORPTION IN CHROMATOGRAPHIC ELUENTS BY MEANS OF THE CO LASER AND THE PZT PYROELECTRIC DETECTOR

Combined use of the CO laser and PZT piezoelectric detector is propose d as a sensitive and specific detector for gas chromatography. The fea sibility of this detection scheme is demonstrated for a model mixture containing varying proportions of acetone in water. After separation o n a GC column, spectra of both constituents were recorded in the 1600 cm(-1) to 1900 cm(-1) range that encompasses the characteristic freque ncy of C=O bond in acetone. Reasonably high sensitivity (mass concentr ation limit is 1.2x10(-8) g acetone) and a good degree (factor 530) of spectral discrimination was achieved by a proper selection of analyti cal wavelengths.