ABSTRACT
True detector linearity is, in fact, a theoretical concept, and despite the claims by many manufacturers, all detectors can only tend to exhibit this ideal response. A method for linearity measurement was proposed by R. P. W. Scott and I. A. Fowliss for liquid chromatography (LC) detectors but the procedure can be used for detectors in general. Most Gas Chromatography (GC) detectors can be designed to meet this criteria over a concentration range of at least two to three orders of magnitude. The flame ionization detector can be designed to have a response index lying between 0.98 and 1.02 over a concentration range in excess of five orders of magnitude. GC detectors can be made fairly insensitive to changes in ambient temperature, but it will also be seen that this is more difficult with LC detectors. The electron capture detector is one of a family of detectors invented by J. E. Lovelock around the late 1950s and early 1960s.
