PFPD

The pulsed flame photometric detector (PFPD) is based on a pulsed flame for the generation of flame chemiluminescence. The detector used for gas chromatography operates with a fuel-rich mixture of hydrogen and air that is ignited 3-4-times per second . The flame propagates in counterdirection of the gas-flow into a combuston chamber, where the flame extinguishes. Carbon light emissions and the emissions from the hydrogen/oxygen combustion gases are complete within 2-3 ms, after which a number of heteroatomic species give delayed emissions lasting up to 4-20 ms. These delayed emissions are filtered with a wide bandpass filter, detected by an appropriate photomultiplier tube (PMT). and electronically gated to eliminate background flame emission. The PFPD can detect at least 28 elements, 13 of them (S, P, N, As, Se, Sn, Ge, Ga, Sb, Te, Br, Cu and In) with high selectivity.