Evaluation of a supercritical fluid chromatograph coupled to a surface-wave-sustained microwave-induced-plasma detector

Abstract

A capillary supercritical fluid chromatograph (SFC) was coupled to a surface-wave-sustained microwave-induced plasma (MIP) sustained with a surfatron. The chromato-

Atomic spectroscopy with surface wave plasmas

“…The use of a plasma detector in this area requires the ability to produce a mixed gas plasma without sacrificing the analytical performances. Initial experiments with surface wave plasmas as detectors in supercritical fluid chromatography [38][39][40] have shown that a helium-carbon dioxide plasma provides a lower sensitivity for several non-metal analytes than a pure helium plasma. This can be corrected and our own experiments show that for the tin detection in supercritical fluid chromatography, the use of a ternary plasma (He -CO 2 -H 2 ) not only allows the recovery of the analytical sensitivity of the pure helium plasma, but also improves it (Fig.…”

Easy hyphenation of supercritical-fluid chromatography to atomic-emission detection for analysis of lubricant additives

“…The introduction of carbon dioxide into the plasma should be restricted because of (i) the degradation of spectral background owing to emission of molecular and ionic species as a result of the fragmentation of CO2, leading, for instance, to severe interference from 170 to 220 nm in the UV region [22]; and (ii) the perturbation of the atomization and/or excitation process by the mobile phase. Previous workers have stressed the importance of these phenomena during the detection of emission lines from ions from halogenated compounds, and attributed them to charge-transfer perturbation in helium plasma doped with carbon dioxide [23,24].…”

Applications of Supercritical Fluids in Industrial Analysis

“…In MIP detectors, the plasma is sustained in a surface wave device called a surfatron (Luffer et al, 1988) or in a resonant cavity (Motley et al, 1989). Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide had a dramatic effect on the detection limit (Riviere et al, 1988).…”