ABSTRACT
The refractive index detector was one of the first on-line detectors to be developed and was described by Tiselius and Claesson [1] in 1942. It was also the first detector to be made commercially and at one time was the only on-line detector that was available for general use in chromatography. The refractive index detector is the least sensitive of all the commonly used detectors. It is very sensitive to changes in ambient temperature, pressure changes and flow-rate changes; furthermore, it can not be used for gradient elution. Nevertheless, this detector can be extremely useful for detecting those compounds that are nonionic, do not adsorb in the UV, and do not fluoresce.
