THEORY OF BULK AND FLOW ELECTROLYSIS AND APPROACH TO PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION FOR CHROMATOGRAPHIC ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION

The performance and characteristics of an amperometric-coulometric det ector for liquid chromatography were investigated as a function of the main chromatographic parameters. Hydroquinone was chosen as reference compound. Starting from the theory of bulk and flow electrolysis, the effect of eluent flow rate on the detector response was investigated and the agreement between experimental and calculated data was verifie d. The study was preceded by an investigation of the detector behaviou r in different chromatographic operating conditions: void volume evalu ation, effect of mobile phase composition on baseline behaviour, curre nt/potential curve for analyte and mobile phase, analyte stability, Li nearity, repeatability of the detector response and electrochemical ex clusion from interferences were examined.