Band broadening, detector flow cells and time-constant

4 Band-broadening, detector flow cells and time constant 

In many HPLC detectors the column eluent flows through a cell within which some physicochemical interaction with the solutes takes place. Exceptions to this include mass spectrometric detectors where the eluent has to be vaporised before introduction into the vacuum system, or the evaporative mass detector, where again the eluent is heated and vaporised before undergoing analysis by light scattering. Often a number of flow cell options are offered by detector manufacturers, and this reflects the effect of the detection volume on the detected peak. The total peak variance, a, is the sum of all the variance contributions. 

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