A Review of Detectors for Gas Chromatography Part I: Universal Detectors

INTRODUCTION

The writer of an article on gas chromatography detectors is faced with a dilemma which has no satisfactory solution. Practically every physical characteristic of gases and vapors has been used or suggested as the basis for a detector and the temptation is to write an article in which each of these methods is briefly discussed. The other extreme is a detailed discussion of the three or four detectors which have become universally accepted and offered by all the manufacturers of GC equipment. The third approach is to discuss the common detectors and a few of the less common ones which seem to the author to have promise or to have been unduly neglected. This middle course is the one which has been followed here, although it is recognized that it is a subjective approach and that a detector which appears important to the author may not do so to some of his readers and conversely a detector may have been omitted which some readers find indispensible in their work. Clearly, as in all analytical techniques, each detector has specific advantages and disadvantages, and it is the aim of this article to highlight these for the detectors discussed.