Chromatography Forum

We have in our lab a GC-MS and a GC-FID both Agilent. As you may already know the GC-MS has the feature "Solvent delay" hence MS data is not collected during the solvent delay avoiding the overloaded solvent peak in the chromatograph. I was trying to setup this parameter in the GC-FID however I can't find this feature in the software properties. Apparently the solvent delay parameter is only available in the MS but I guess there must be another way to start acquiring data from a specific time in order to avoid the solven peak in the GC-FID. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hello

In Chemstation you can set up time events for FID - gases on/off so you can have detector on/off when you want. Check drop down menu in time events.

Regards

Tomasz Kubowicz

Welcome to the forum.

The function of the solvent delay in a GC-MS system is to protect the MS filament form the effects of high concentrations of solvent vapour in the source.

Since, usually, an FID is not damaged by solvent going through it, a solvent delay is not necessary on a GC-FID. You should certainly NOT turn off the FID gasses at any time during a run, because it will destabilize the baseline.

If you do not want to integrate the solvent peak, then use the integration timed functions to turn off the integration while the solvent peak is eluting.

Peter

I agree with Peter.
If you need to know an initial setting for the MS delay, you can "see" the solvent by monitoring the MS pressure gage. You will see the pressure go up, then back down. This can be your starting point.