Packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography with splitless flame ionization detection

The design and characterization of a flame ionization detector (FID) that is compatible with the high flow rates of packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography (pSFC) is presented. The modified FID uses a large quartz burner (4.0 mm i.d.) in place of the conventional burner (0.4 mm i.d.) and operates a stable flame in the presence of gas flows tested up to nearly 3000 mL/min. This modification allows the full flow of effluent from a pSFC column (i.e., splitless mode) to be directed into the FID. Results demonstrate that the modified FID yields response that is within a factor of 3 to that of a commercial FID. The attributes of the modified detector indicate that this approach could be a reliable and relatively simple means of achieving a splitless pSFC-FID system.