Simultaneous and sensitive analysis of inorganic and organic gaseous compounds by pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID)

Abstract

A simple gas chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous and sensitive analysis of inorganic (H2, CO, and CO2) and organic gaseous compounds (CH4, C2H4, C 2H6, C3H6, C3H 8, iso-C4H10, and n-C4H 10). The analysis of these gases generally requires multi-columns and/or multi-detectors, whereas the proposed method uses a single micropacked column and a single pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID). All of the investigated peaks (except for the N2 and O2 peaks, which are the major components of air) show good separation when using an oven temperature program from 40°C to 300°C. This gas chromatography-PDHID system yielded good linearity and a relative standard deviation of less than 5%. This sensitive and convenient method shows great potential in analyses of various types of gaseous compounds. Copyright © 2012 by The Geochemical Society of Japan.