Simultaneous and sensitive analysis of inorganic and organic gaseous compounds by pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID)

A simple gas chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous and sensitive analysis of inorganic (H-2, CO, and CO2) and organic gaseous compounds (CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, C3H8, iso-C4H10, and n-C4H10). The analysis of these gases generally requires multi-columns and/or multi-detectors, whereas the proposed method uses a single micropacked column and a single pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID). All of the investigated peaks (except for the N-2 and O-2 peaks, which are the major components of air) show good separation when using an oven temperature program from 40 degrees C to 300 degrees C. This gas chromatography PDHID system yielded good linearity and a relative standard deviation of less than 5%. This sensitive and convenient method shows great potential in analyses of various types of gaseous compounds.