Upgrade your GC

Our PID detectors are easy to install on any commercial GC.

Selectivity

Improves separations and analysis of trace species

Wide linear dynamic range

> 10⁷

50-200 times more sensitive than the FID 

High sensitivity

pg or sub pg detection limits- most sensitive PID available

Non destructive

Detectors can be run in-series

Used by environmental agencies worldwide

Display (PI52 only)

Our 2 line by 16 character display can be backlit; used for range and background readings.

ADC

Our 16 bit ADC provides a resolution of 1 part in 64,000 and our signal algorithm minimizes noise by signal averaging in the msec range

Programmable Voltage output

0-10VDC (PI52 only)

• The photoionization detector (PID) is used for the measurement of low (ppb) organic and inorganic species that can be ionized by the UV lamp (9.5, 10.6 & 11.7). Nearly 20,000 of these detectors have been sold worldwide since it was first released by HNU Systems in 1976. It has been used for the measurement of VOC’s in water (EPA method 602, EPA Method 50--, EPA Method SW846…, numerous OSHA methods), quality control… There are two Models that are described below:



• The Model PI52 has a PID, a power supply for the lamp and bias and an electrometer. The electrometer output is 0-10 VDC. The customer needs a separate ADC channel to feed the signal into the GC’s data system. Alternately, PID Analyzers sells a data system (Model 50) that will feed the signal into a separate PC.



• The Model PI51 has a PID and a power supply for the lamp and bias. Here, the customer uses the electrometer (FID type with a positive bias) already in the Gas chromatograph. This should already have the ADC connection to the customer GC data system.



• The PID is one of the most sensitive detectors available for VOC’s. It has the widest dynamic range of any detector available (108) and does not require any support gases except the carrier.

---

Specifications

Species measured:

Organics (VOCs) and inorganic species

that can be ionized by the UV lamp (9.5, 10.6, 11.7)

Detection limit:

<0.5 ppb of benzene

Range:

> 5 x 10⁷

Detector:

2.5'' D x 5.5'' L

Electronics enclosure (PI52):

Weight: 3 lbs.

Size: -'' W x -'' L x -'' H

Electronics enclosure (PI51):

Weight: 0.40 lbs

Size: 4'' W x 5'' D x 1.25''H

Power consumption:

< 2 amps @ 115V

Dimensions:

10'' L x 3'' W x 2.25'' D

Instrument operating conditions:

5-40 degrees C, 0-95% RH (non-condensing)

For more information, this product brochure is available for viewing or download here. Contact us for a quotation here.

PID-based #GCs: ready, set, cruise!

GUEST BLOG POST: Jack Driscoll (JND)

Maclachlan, Driscoll, The Cutters

On Friday, Nov.5, 2011, Jennifer Maclachlan and I (JND) from PID Analyzers of Sandwich, MA had a tour of the US Navy research vessel, Knorr located at its home port of Falmouth, MA at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). 

L to R: Driscoll & Cutter

It is a magnificent ocean going laboratory with clean rooms, wet chemistry & instrumental laboratories for on-board monitoring of > 20 trace metals, nutrients, pH, conductivity & isotopes etc. in sea water samples.
The ocean research vessel Knorr (279’) is one of the largest U.S. Navy research vessels and is operated by WHOI (Falmouth, MA). The Knorr is best known as the ship that supported a team of WHOI and French researchers who discovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985. One of our customers is Prof. Gregory Cutter, Old Dominion University, an Ocean Researcher, and co-Chief Scientist of this voyage of the Knorr. The R/V Knorr (above) departed on Nov. 6 to Bermuda then to Cape Verde Island. This crew of 24 plus 32 scientists who will working on the determination of trace metals, nutrients etc. in the ocean waters under an National Science Foundation grant will be gone about six weeks.

PID Analyzers helped resurrect several of Old Dominion University’s 25 year old HNU model 301 GC’s equipped with photoionization detectors for the detection of As+3, As+5, & total Arsenic (Cutter 1991 see technical paper) These GC’s will be generating a significant amount of data on the arsenic concentrations in the ocean water from the surface down to the bottom (no sediment). 

 

There is a crew of 24 and 32 scientists (including graduate students) aboard the vessel. The scientists will be determining nutrient levels, & more than 20 trace metals. Many of the samples will be run in real time since they run analyses around the clock. Thousands of samples will be collected to be tested by other labs around the world. Altogether more than 30 tons of seawater will be collected during this voyage. In addition to mercury levels in water, they will be determining freons in air samples collected during the voyage. 

 The work in this report was done with an HNU GC301 shown (left). The replacement instrument described in this report is a GC322 manufactured by: 

PID Analyzers, LLC
2 Washington Circle,
Sandwich, MA 02563



Note that PID Analyzers also makes a PI52 detector that can be mounted on any GC to detect As and Se compounds. See Model 52 detector brochure here.

Check out our content focused blogs: 

GC Detectors & Gas Analysis

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My Best in Blog: @pidgirl's #acsdenver participation

242nd ACS National Meeting, Denver, CO

C&EN Technical Program Summary

Monday early evening 8/29/11 before SCI-MIX: Calling all ACS Twitter peeps using and/or following the #acsdenver conversation on Twitter

 

Meet me at LODO's Downtown at 5:30pm-7pm.

 An official IYC event

RSVP using the Schmap  Please RT and spread the word.

Who to follow on Twitter for #acsdenver tweets: follow this list and please let me know who needs to be added.

After the Tweetup, take the 6 minute walk to SCI-MIX at the Colorado Convention Center.

Monday evening 8/29/11 8:00pm–10:00 p.m.
Sci Mix
Colorado Convention Center Hall D

"Sci-Mix is the largest poster session of the national meeting. Successful student chapters will showcase their activities and the event will also feature divisional posters and other exhibits" Source

I'll be at SCI-MIX at my  SCHB: Division of Small Chemical Businesses  poster #SCHB015:

Analysis of ppb levels of photochemical smog components in air using a portable analyzer

Document ID: 18472

Program Area: SCHB: Division of Small Chemical Businesses

Symposium Title: (SCHB015) Sci-Mix 

 My colleague will be at my ENVR : Division of Environmental Chemistry poster #ENVR023: Chemistry outreach on Cape Cod during the International Year of Chemistry

Program Area: ENVR: Division of Environmental Chemistry

Symposium Title: (ENVR023) Sci-Mix

Tuesday morning 8/30/11  and Wednesday morning 8/31/11 9am-12pm-See me on the EXPO Floor-Stop by the SCHB booth #1730-I'll be there from 10am-1pm. Come and learn about the SCHB: whose objective is to aid in the formation, development, and growth of small chemical businesses.

Here is the SCHB Fall newsletter including Denver program overview and specific SCHB symposia. 

Tuesday afternoon 8/30/11 Presidential Symposia & awards:  Communicating Chemistry to the Public symposium moderated by ACS President-Elect Bassam Shakhashiri (co-sponsored by ACS President Nancy B. Jackson and the ACS Committee on Public Relations and Communications) on Tuesday afternoon from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Colorado Convention Center, Room 108. Speakers include journalists from print, web, radio and television; a chemist-cookbook author; science toys expert; and the author of the 2012 National Science Board’s Science Indicators public opinion chapter.RSVP using the Schmap.

and James T. Grady-James H. Stack Awards Reception/SE-21/$10 4:30 to 6 PM, Colorado Convention Center RM 605

Tuesday evening 8/30/11. The fun begins at 8pm.

Posters, ChemLuminary Awards and Dancing Chemists...come and celebrate the International Year of Chemistry at the Fall National Meeting. 8pm Sheraton Denver Downtown. 

An official IYC event.
RSVP using the Schmap. 

 

NESACS Celebrates #IYC2011 at the Q2 Cape Cod Science Cafe

Wednesday evening 8/31/11 ENVR: Division of Environmental Chemistry General Poster Session #ENVR008p: Chemistry outreach on Cape Cod during the International Year of Chemistry 

Document ID: 10095

Program Area: ENVR: Division of Environmental Chemistry

Symposium Title: (ENVR008p) General Posters

Looking forward to seeing you in Denver!

Advantages of a Hyphenated PID/MS Combination for GC Applications #pittcon 2012

Advantages of a Hyphenated PID/MS Combination for GC Applications 

Status: 

Accepted for POSTER Presentation Pittcon 2012:    ACS Analytical Chemistry Divison 
Slot #24 03/12/12

Methodology: Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Keywords:  
Flavor/Essential Oil
Forensic Chemistry
Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry
Hydrocarbons

Authors & Affiliations:

Jack Driscoll, PID Analyzers, LLC

Clifford M. Taylor, Shimadzu Scientific

Jennifer Maclachlan, PID Analyzers, LLC

Abstract:

There are many situations where a second detector can save time and effort, even for a mass selective detector (MSD).  These include critical analyses (forensic samples) where duplicate analyses are needed, where small samples or low concentration samples are being analyzed, where flavors or odorous compounds are being analyzed or if a high level sample is being analyzed.

The photoionization detector (PID) is a very sensitive, non destructive detector for VOC’s (low or sub ppb), with a wide dynamic range (>5 x 107. When arson samples are analyzed, one serious problem is a “no detect”. When a sample is not detected, one is required to run additional samples to confirm those results since it could be either a bad injection or bad sample. If a second sensitive detector is run at the same time and a small peak is observed then only one additional sample has to be run.   In addition, the data generated in arson analysis must be legally defensible - this creates the need for duplicate sample analysis (or dual detector analysis) as well as sample archival.

The PID is non destructive so the effluent, a flavor component, can be sniffed as the peak is being detected. This allows olfactometry to be coupled with the specific identification of a peak. No splitter is required. Elimination of the splitter is an advantage since a small difference in flow could cause an error in identification of the peak. The PID is very sensitive for aromatic hydrocarbons. The detection limit of the PID is 0.5 ppb of benzene so low levels of sample can be detected and “no detects” should be minimized. The PID is not easily contaminated by high levels of sample. If the MSD is run downstream of the PID, and a low dead volume valve is in front of the MSD, then a high level sample could be switched to minimize contamination of the MSD.

We will evaluate these applications and others to determine the feasibility of using a second detector in combination with the MSD.

Recent Discussion from the AIHA Linked-In Group about the use of a PID

American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Linked In Group Discussion

This paper describes the use of a PID Analyzers Model 102 photoionization analyzer with a long life 11.7 eV lamp to measure chlorinated HC including carbon tetrachloride.

Measurement of chlorinated HC with an 117 PID.pdf gasanalysis.blogspot.com

Measurement of chlorinated HC with an 117...

3 days ago

4 comments

Gershon Schwartz • An interesting article indeed.

Still I wouldn't use a PID if I had more than one solvent as it would be extremely difficult to differentiate between them especially if one was a chlorinated hydrocarbon and the other was a non chlorinated solvent. A PID would be useful if you are doing a general survey to determine presence of solvents in an area were you already know qualitatively what exists in the matrix. But then an FID or an FPD would do the same job why use a PID ? A more difficult question is why would you want to do such a survey at all? I have used TO-17 or T0-15 for surveys for years and in my opinion the results much more accurate results albeit you have to wait for the laboratory analysis.

As I said in the beginning of this discussion if you must have immediate results I would use a portable GC-MS . Yes its heavier ,more expensive and difficult to use, but its also more accurate and the results coming from it definitely would stand up in court were as I sincerely doubt if results from a PID scanner would.

see http://www.epa.gov/ttnamti1/airtox.html#compendium for all the ambient methodology when you need to use a Mass spec otherwise http://www.osha.gov/dts/sltc/methods/organic/org007/org007.html or
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2003-154/

Although we will never get one opinion in here ,maybe someone from NIOSH or OSHA is listening and could weigh in??

2 days ago

Jack Driscoll • A portable mass spectrometer is a nice piece of equipment but at $100K, it is not an analyzer that every industrial hygienist has at his or her disposal. The PID with an 11.7 lamp, on the other hand is about $3K and many industrial hygienists do have PID’s. The 11.7 lamp is needed for detecting many chlorinated hydrocarbons since they have higher ionization potentials than 10.6 eV. The FID has a very poor response to chlorinated hydrocarbons like carbon tetrachloride. This chemical used to be used as a fire extinguisher on airplanes. The FPD’s on the market respond to S or P but not Cl-HC.
The main advantage of a PID is that it does respond to many compounds so one does not need a specific analyzer for every solvent that they use. The PID has a fast response (90% in 1 second) and can detect very low levels of VOC’s (ppb) so it can be used to find problem areas very quickly. Once an area is mapped, a charcoal tube sample is collected in the “hot” spots and returned to the laboratory for a detailed analysis of the chemicals in the area by various OSHA methods. In fact, the portable PID’s are used by OSHA to determine sampling locations during their surveys of industrial plants. With a PID to determine which problem areas to sample, one would have a more accurate assessment of the site.

17 hours ago

Gershon Schwartz • Very good and clear explanation.

I agree with you 100%.

The right tool in the right hand at the right time,

Thanks, this is the good kind of quality discussions we should have here.

Have a nice day

9 hours ago

Jack Driscoll • Thanks for your comments Gershon.

45 minutes ago

Gershon Schwartz • Thanks for your comments also.
After living thirty years of Industrial Hygiene and Atmospheric Science you
must understand that I have heard many long tales of misuse of equipment
and then had to eat the dust myself. How many times have a heard people
trying to convince a Judge that they measured concentrations with whatever
handheld sensor and that a 3 second measurement was equivalent to a
measurement over 30 minute average period which was required by law???
This discussion started before I was born in 1955 with Leidel and Leidel
when people were trying to prove that you could simulate worker exposure by
setting up and number of sensors in a factory, measuring the time the
worker was in each area, integrating between time and exposure and hockus
pockus you get an exposure value which is supposed to represent reality.
Well in reality this method didn't work in 1955 and it doesn't work now
either.
Then again as you explained very clearly there are advantages to a
screening tool and it always comes down to the right tool in the right hand
at the right time.
Thanks for the opportunity to discuss a real hot potato and for handling it
in a very professional way.

Hope that we will have many more such discussions here.

Best Regards
Gershon Schwartz

3 days ago

Stepan Reut • We use PID and FID detectors put sequentially on GC. Absolutely priceless configuration for detection and quantification of light aromatic in complex mixtures (like naphtha).

1 day ago

Gershon Schwartz • In the lab or in the field? Used to be a portable gc by a company named
sentex weighed over 20 kg and gave me a slipped disc. Then there was the
Photovav gc pid which wasn't very stable in the field. Does anybody know if
there are any portable gc's available today? Seems to me like another great
idea on paper that never worked in the field?


Best regards

1 day ago

Stepan Reut • Sorry, I was not clear in my wording. My GC is custom configured lab unit.

1 day ago

Jack Driscoll • Stephan- Do you have any interesting PID?FID chromatograms and or applications that we could use on our gcdetector blog?

1 day ago

Stepan Reut • FID+PID configuration gives unique selectivity for low molecular weight compounds: C1-C10. Methanol gives zero solvent pick on PID detector, so you can see traces on C2-C3 unsaturated compounds (Vinyl Chloride) which would be otherwise covered under MeOH.

Let me check what I can find for your blog.

1 day ago

Stepan Reut • As for field PID, I had an idea how to increase selectivity, but never could test it. It looks like one can do crude separation of VOC's based on the boiling point. If you insert a 100mg Carbosieve trap in PID probe, you eliminate all organic starting from C3 and up. Charcoal trap would eliminate everything from C4 and up, XAD2 traps C6 and up, Sulfuric acid on ceramic - eliminates amines, and so on. With some experimenting this can be developed into simple field chromatography: PID with disposable packed column for fractional separation of the VOC's . If one plots dPID/dt you have a real chromatogram from a handheld PID

1 day ago

Jack Driscoll • see the recent blog on PID/FID

21 hours ago

Rob Hill • We used an 11.7 eV lamp PID years ago when doing leak detection (i.e., when we knew what the constituents/mass fractions were in the process lines, tanks, etc.) You have to be very aware of the relative response of each chemical with regard to whichever lamp you use. If I remember correctly, carbon tet and formaldehyde could be seen by the PID with the higher eV bulb, but you still had to multiply your reading by the response factor, which was about 10 for these compounds. Which means that you're being exposed to 10 times the concentration of what the reading on the instrument is telling you. The manufacturer can provide you with a table of response factors, so ask for them.

If you need a good field instrument or something accurate but portable, I'd recommend the Miran SapphIRe - it uses infrared spectroscopy and the XL model has a comprehensive library that calibrates the unit to 150 compounds for unknown identifications and can be customized for whatever you are looking for. (Here's the spec sheet)

It's a whopper to carry around but very helpful in instances where we needed to know the actual concentrations (or as nearly as we could get). The Miran is cheaper than a portable GC-MS (costs around $25K to buy), but with all these detectors, you can rent them from folks like Ashtead or Geotech for a reasonable fee... Lastly, as Gershon mentioned above, TO-15 or TO-17 canister sampling can be done, and if you are in a hurry, there are mobile labs that can do these analyses on-site (such as H&P Mobile Geochemistry and Con-Test) using Tedlar bags and/or Summa canisters.



 

Add a comment...  Updated as of 8/15/11 by Posted by PID Girl: Jennifer Maclachlan

PID Analyzer Field Portable PID Logging Software

PID Analyzer Field Portable PID Logging Software

The 4th Generation Photoionization Detector

Model_52_PID 511

#AIHCE 2011 Wrap-Up-the word from Booth 718

We heard it from an industrial hygienist

                                                                     in Portland, OR

Chlorinated hydrocarbons are a hot topic right now for first responders from fire departments and government agencies such as Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration.We have been specializing in the measurement of chlorinated hydrocarbons since our development of the 11.7 eV long lifetime photoionization detector lamp in 1979. This lamp is available for the hand-held PIDs and for our portable gas chromatographs. Click here for more information about use of a photoionization based analyzer for the measurement of chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Web site

We brought along the first ever sold HNU PI-101 to Portland because we were showcasing it at The Chemistry of Industrial Hygiene Instrumentation Reception during the conference and we brought it to the booth thinking folks would get a kick out of it. We elicited a huge response from attendees most of whom were unaware that they could still get service from us on their old (and beloved) 101 series photoionizers.   Check out our "A New Era in Photoionization" brochure here.


Real-Time Detection Systems: our fast gas chromatograph Model 322 was extremely popular in Portland, OR. Although we introduced the Far-Ultraviolet detector in 1984, it remains underutilized. The most attractive feature of the FUV is that it is nearly universal and is more sensitive than the Thermal Conductivity Detector (TCD). Jack Driscoll and Phil Smith presented research at AIHCE for an industrial hygiene application using the fast GC Model 322 which uses resistively heated columns in the oven and a dual detection method: photoionization detector and a far-UV detector. Click here for more info on this application.

As a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association's Real-Time Detection System Committee (AIHA RTDSC), Jack Driscoll is co-authoring a book with Phil Smith, Past Chair of the AIHA RTDSC called "Important Instrumentation and Methods for the Detection of Chemicals in the Field". Jack has contracted to contribute the last section of the book on the subject of Infrared Analyzers. He recently completed the Photoionization and Specialized Detectors sections.

Updated May 27, 2014

  AIHA Important Instrumentation Cover Page + Table of Contents by Dr. John Jack Driscoll

Far UV Absorbance Detector-The FUVAD

The Far UV Absorbance Detector

"Theory-Most organic and inorganic species absorb strongly in the far UV (FUV). Notable exceptions are the inert gases, helium and nitrogen which absorb very weakly in this region. Certain
diatomic species such as O which have low absorption in the region of the lamp energy 2 (124 nm) will have a poor response but low ppm levels can still be detected.

The far UV detector is relatively new to gas chromatography (compared to other  GC detectors) since it was introduced by HNU Systems in 1984. It is frequently compared with the thermal conductivity detector since it will respond to any compound that absorbs in the far or vacuum UV. The latter name is a misnomer since with a carrier gas flowing through the cell, a vacuum is not needed. Thus, the detector has a response that is nearly universal, a low dead volume (40 µl), and a fast electrometer time constant.
The primary emission from this lamp is the 124 mn line. Although there are visible lines from this lamp, the photodiode is unresponsive to any long wavelength UV or visible emissions and only the absorption at 124 nm needs to be considered for the absorption
process.

The minimum detection limits for organic compounds, oxygen, water, and
inorganic compounds are in the range from 0.1 to 10 ppm. A summary of the detection limits for organic and inorganic compounds is given in Table I.

Table I
Detection Limits for the FUV Detector


Compound Detection Limit (ng)
Sulfur dioxide 0.7
Methane 0.3
Oxygen 14
Water 3
Propane 1
Chloroform 5
Ethylene 1
Hydrogen sulfide 3

The HNU Far UV Detector (FUV) utilizes a simple, compact detector consisting
of a stable UV source, absorption cavity (1 cm path), and novel UV photodiode. The  detector has a universal response to all species which absorb in the 120 nm region. See Figure _ below. No response is observed for for noble gases or nitrogen. Thus, helium or nitrogen make ideal carrier gases. The
detector responds in accordance with the Lambert Beer Law:

I = Io e-kx

where I = Measured intensity

Io = Incident intensity

k = absorption coefficient

x= path length

Photons emitted from the far UV lamp (Io)are absorbed by molecules passing
through the cell causing a net decrease in photon flux to the photodiode (I). The changes in photon flux exhibits the Lambert Beers law relationship with concentration. The photodiode responds to the decrease in lamp flux and the change is amplified and
recorded.

The linearity of this detector is better than 104. The sensitivity of this detector is similar to the FID for methane and 25-100 times better than a TCD for selected compounds. In addition, the FUV detector is nondestructive and can be run in series with other detectors. Applications include trace levels of 02, H20 and inorganic gases which have been difficult to detect at sub-microgram levels previously.

Features

• Universal Response-
Responds to organic and inorganic compounds that absorb at 120 nm with detection limits 100 times lower than TCD
• Sensitivity Subnanogram
for most compounds
• Suitability for Capillary Column Analysis
Low dead volume (<50µL) allows operation with minimum make-up
• Non Destructive-Allows series operation of detectors
• Simplicity of Response
Unidirectional peaks, Beers Law Relationship  

• Adaptability-
Is readily adaptable to ANY chromatograph  

• Ease of Operation-
no additional gases needed
• Linearity->104
The detection limits for a number of compounds are given below in Table:
Applications

• Trace water in helium, nitrogen, semi conductor gases, or process streams
• Detector with nearly universal response & detection limits in the low or sub ppm levels
• Responds to all hydrocarbons with equivalent or better sensitivity for Methane (CH4) than the FID •Ideal complement to the PID"

Source of quoted text: Copyright 1998-2011 PID Analyzers, LLC 

For more information on this subject check out a chapter that Jack Driscoll wrote titled: FarUV ionization (Photoionization) and Absorbance Detectors.