THE PERFORMANCE OF A DUAL ALKALI AEROSOL FLAME IONIZATION DETECTOR FOR GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY

The described alkali flame ionization detector (AFID) differs from other designs by introducing the alkali salt into the detector in the form of an aerosol. The preheated, desolvated alkali aerosol salt is introduced into a dual hydrogen gas flame assembly. This detector shows no evidence of fatigue due to the constant delivery of salt into the detector, compared to the fixed alkali supply found in other versions, which can be depleted by vaporization and become easily contaminated. This AFID design also allows for operation as an FID by implementing a simple pneumatic procedure. This paper deals with the performance and optimization of the detector using a dual alkali salt aerosol flame design for organonitrogen and organophosphorus compounds. Detection limits were 23.5 pgN/sec for alachlor, 185 pgN/sec for dinoseb, and 4.83 pgP/sec to 10.1 pgP/sec for various pesticides studied. Selectivity ratios are tunable to 6.6 x 10(6) gP/gC, 4.0 x 10(4) gN/gC and 2.3 x 10(3) gP/gN by establishing the appropriate detector gas flow rates.