Improved quantification of sulfur compounds in the atmosphere by hyphenated GC-FPD-PID

246th ACS National Meeting, Indianapolis, IN 

Document ID: 15413, Paper# 251

Program Area: ENVR Division of Environmental Chemistry

Symposium Title: (ENVR014p) Air Monitoring

INSTITUTIONS

1. PID Analyzers, LLC, Sandwich, MA, 02563, United States

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AUTHORS        

1. Jack N. Driscoll1 , PID ANALYZERS, LLC, 2 Washington Circle #4, #4, Sandwich, Massachusetts, 02563, United States 

2. Jennifer L. Maclachlan1 , PID Analyzers, LLC, 2 Washington Circle, #4, Sandwich, MA, 02563, United States

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Title: Improved quantitation of sulfur compounds in the atmosphere by hyphenated GC-FPD-PID

Abstract Body: The flame photometric detector (FPD) for gas chromatography has a high selectivity for sulfur compared to carbon. When a S compound is burned in a hydrogen rich flame, the excited species S2* is formed with the emission of blue light at 394 nm when it returns to the ground state. The response for various sulfur compounds then is proportional to the square root of the sulfur compound and varies considerably with structure. The quantitation of sulfur compounds is made more difficult because of the limited dynamic range of the FPD (103) and poor detection limits (20-50 ppb) for sulfur compounds. The photoionization detector (PID) responds to most volatile organic compounds and most sulfur compounds so it is a non selective detector. However, it has a linear dynamic range > 107and low or sub ppb detection limits for most compounds. If we combine the characteristics of these two detectors, we can eliminate the disadvantages of linearity, detection limits and selectivity and have an ideal detector combination PID/FPD.

Presentation slides are accessible below: 

S in ambient air by gc pid fpd acs fall 2013 final from Jennifer Maclachlan