Polyarc is for scientists and engineers who are measuring trace amounts of low molecular weight compounds that serve as monomers in polymer development or act as impurities in reactions. This includes compounds like formaldehyde, acetonitrile, acrylonitrile, carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, and carbon tetrachloride that have poor sensitivity in a flame ionization detector (FID) and/or mass spectrometer.

The Polyarc solution provides high sensitivity and uniform response to small molecules, ensuring accurate and reliable results.

An FID responds poorly to highly functionalized small molecules because they don’t form CHO⁺ ions with a high propensity in the flame. Polyarc converts the carbon in these molecules to CH₄ thereby boosting their signal in the FID and providing a uniform carbon response.

The addition of a Polyarc can increase the sensitivity to these molecules by up to 100x. This can be useful when trying to assess the purity of monomer or polymer product.

Obtaining standards for these reactive or adsorptive compounds can be challenging, but the uniform response provided by the Polyarc enables users to check and potentially eliminate the need for standards.

Achieving outstanding Polyarc results requires a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with an FID and suitable inlet (e.g., split/splitless, on-column, PTV). Headspace sampling will NOT work as it leads to vapor-liquid equilibrium fractionation unless total evaporation techniques are employed.

Incorporating a Polyarc into your trace measurement workflow delivers immediate results:

• Increased sensitivity (down to 0.1 ppm)
• Eliminates need for potentially reactive/labile standards
• Use of GC/FID instead of more specialized detectors (e.g., ECD)
• Use of GC instead of HPLC for formaldehyde analysis
• Improved accuracy with uniform response
• Ability to check standards (when used)