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From PID's to portable GC's and Beyond
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June 2012
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Greetings!
We're looking forward to our mid-week mini break next week in observance of the Independence Day holiday: we're closing Wednesday and Thursday. |
| Early history of the photoionization detector |
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| Photoionization detector for gas chromatography |
| Jack Driscoll and Fred Spaziani: the founding fathers of HNU Systems, Inc. applied the photoionization detector technology to gas chromatography in 1976. Having borrowed a Tracor GC equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector and utilizing Fred's uncanny mechanical engineering skills, they built a crude version of the PID modeled after the portable PID they had introduced to the industrial hygiene market in 1974 and modified the detector to run on the Tracor. The purpose of this exercise was to develop a sensitive detector for hydrocarbons. What they had not expected to find was that their PID was fifty times more sensitive than the FID for aromatic hydrocarbons! Information on upgrading your GC with our HNU PID is here.
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| Fast GC for Real-Time Detection in the field |
| Gas chromatographic analysis times for ketone and aromatics methods (NIOSH 1301, 1501 & 2005) are between 25-35 minutes due to long temperature ramping and cooling times. Also, if peaks are not resolved chromatographically, non-target components may interfere with the analysis. We employed Vici Valco's resistively heated columns to reduce the total analysis times by 50-60%, and used the PID/FID response ratios to enhance identification of components of interest. Abstract here |
| *Enlighten me, but make it quick* Ignite! Session |
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Jack is presenter #3 in this engaging presentation.
 20 slides in 5 minutes on a particular
es are auto-advanced so in this case, timing IS everything!
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