Analysis by electron oscillation in a conventional GC detector

Abstract

The oscillation of electrons—as driven by AC polarization—can be used to extract a high-sensitivity signal from a conventional electron capture detector. For example, hexachloroethane was detected at a hypercoulometric ratio of 2.0 F/mol, down to ca. 60 fg/s (S/N=3) and with a linear range in excess of two orders of magnitude. The change in carrier gas from nitrogen to argon-methane produced the expected order-of-magnitude increase in optimum oscillation frequency. Anab initio simulation of potentials and ion populations in a heterogeneous electron capture system under a high-frequency AC regime provided further insight into the detector's mechanism: Hypercoulometric response is mainly caused by increased cation-electron recombination in the plasma region, owing to a decreased field gradient and an increased cation concentration.