Plasma spectrometric detection for supercritical fluid chromatography

Abstract

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has received increasing interest recently but there is still a need for a sensitive element selective detector. The most common detector in SFC is the flame ionization detector. This is due to its relatively low cost, universal detection capability, and simplicity. However, there are cases where an element selective detector is desirable. Plasma optical emission and mass spectrometry have proven to be useful tools in elemental analysis, and the coupling of SFC to both inductively coupled plasmas and microwave induced plasmas has shown great promise for trace level speciation. The progress of these techniques to date in our laboratory and as reported in the literature, as well as possible future directions, are discussed.