EVALUATION OF INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY AS AN ELEMENT-SPECIFIC DETECTOR FOR SUPERCRITICAL FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

A capillary supercritical fluid Chromatograph (SFC) was Interfaced to an Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometer (AES). The chromatographic system, Interface, and plasma torch design are described. The argon plasma was optimized for Si I 251.6 nm emission to detect separated organoslllcon compounds selectively. The linear dynamic range for octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane was between 7.24 and 145.0 ng of Si injected, with a detection limit of 5.8 ng of Si injected (57.9 ppm Si). The precision of the measured peak heights of three replicate injections of 75 ng of Si was less than 5%. The effects of the mobile phase (C02) pressure on the plasma stability and sensitivity are presented. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.