Application
This selectivity can be a problem or an advantage. For example, a FID is excellent for detecting methane in nitrogen, since it would respond to the methane but not to the nitrogen.
FIDs are best for detecting hydrocarbons and other easily flammable components. They are very sensitive to these components, and response tends to be linear across a wide range of concentrations.
However, an FID destroys most, if not all, of the components it is detecting. Contrarily, with a TCD the components can continue on to another detector after passing through the TCD; thus it is considered a non-destructive detector (this can be useful for analyzing complex mixtures where different detectors are needed because of differing detector selectivities). However, with an FID, most components are destroyed and no further detection is possible.
For this reason, in multiple-detector situations, the FID is almost always the last detector. An FID essentially can only detect components which can be burned. Other components may be ionized by simply passing through the FID's flame, but they tend not to create enough signal to rise above the noise of the detector.
FIDs can also be integrated into portable measurement devices and used, for example, for Landfill gas monitoring and fugitive emissions monitoring.
Read more about this topic: Flame Ionization Detector
Famous quotes containing the word application:
“Great abilites are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and colouring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one other—only in certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.”
—Talcott Parsons (1902–1979)
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)