Ionization detection systems for the determination of electron affinities of organic molecules

One of the most useful analytical tools for the study of organic compounds to become available in recent years is gas chromatography. Its high resolving power and extreme sensitivity for vaporizable components of a mixture make it an invaluable aid to the analyst. A more recent advance in detection systems used in conjunction with gas chromatography is the electron capture ionization detector. This device shows a high sensitivity and a large degree of selectivity for certain organic molecules, depending upon their molecular structure. The extreme sensitivities and high degree of selectivity however can often lead to erroneous conclusions based on the data obtained. For this reason it is imperative that the information obtained from an electron capture system be correlated with other data from a non selective system in order to assign any meaning of an absolute nature to the observations. The ionization cross section detector is the only catholic ionization detector which is precise, reliable, robust and linear in its response. The only drawback to this otherwise ideal detector is poor sensitivity and a weak signal. A small volume ionization detector has been developed which retains all of the good qualities of the method and is potentially valuable in all applications of gas chromatography where reliability and precision at a moderate sensitivity are required. This device is used as a reference standard for the electron capture measurements. The development of an improved ionization cross section detector and the union of this device with the electron capture detector to provide the basis for a dual gas chromatographic system, which yields simultaneous observations from both cells, forms the subject matter of this dissertation.