Patent ID: 7629797

Claim:
A method of increasing the sensitivity of a capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector, comprising the steps of: providing a capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector operable at an operation frequency W 0 , said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector comprising at least two electrodes disposed about a closed channel of an HPLC apparatus and spaced apart from each other, said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector having a capacitance C W between the sensing electrode and a solution in said closed channel, a parasitic capacitance C P between said at least two electrodes, and a solution resistance R S between the at least two electrodes; providing a inductor having all inductance L S and an internal serial resistance of R LS in parallel electrical connection with said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector, said inductance L S selected to provide a substantially purely resistive impedance when in parallel combination with said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector at said operation frequency W 0 ; measuring with said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector a signal relating to an analyte-bearing fluid situated in said closed channel; analyzing said signal with an analysis module to extract a parameter of said analyte-bearing fluid; and recording said parameter in a memory for future use; thereby providing a capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector that exhibits enhanced sensitivity at said operation frequency W 0 as compared to said capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detector without said parallel inductor.