REACTIVE-FLOW LUMINESCENCE DETECTOR FOR GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY

A stable, several centimeters-long luminescent column is easily formed by a hydrogen-air mixture ascending through a glass capillary toward a glow-sustaining flame on top (which combusts the excess hydrogen with auxiliary air as a flame ionization detector). This encased glow can be used for the photometric determination of gas chromatographic effluents of sulfur and phosphosus, in what may be termed a ''reactive-flow detector'' (RFD). The RFD behaves in many-though not in all-respects similar to the well-known flame photometric detector (FPD). This manuscript reports analytical figures-of-merit for an RFD prototype that are as good as, or better than, those of a typical FPD.