Oxygen-doping of the carrier gas in electron-capture detection

Because oxygen has long been recognised as a common carrier gas impurity, several investigations have attempted to characterise its detrimental effects upon analyses by the ECD. Van de Wiel and Tommassen noted in 1972 that severe oxygen contamination of the carrier gas actually increased the response of their instrument to a weakly responding compound, n-butyl bromide. This chapter describes the extension and development of this observation and indicates that O2-doping can be used to increase ECD response to many compounds. (C.F.)