Two sample detectors used to analyze the emission from Gas Chromatography (GC) columns are the Flame Ionization Detector (FID) and the Electron Capture Detector (ECD). Both of these detectors involve ionization of the sample molecules and then measuring electric current in the gas using a Faraday cup.

In this paper a newly discovered method of ion counting, Nanotechnology Molecular Tagging (NMT) is tested as a replacement to the Faraday cup in GCs. In this method the effective physical volume of individual molecules is enlarged up to 1 billion times enabling them to be detected by an optical particle counter.

It was found that the sensitivity of NMT was considerably greater than the Faraday cup. The background in the NMT was circa 200 ions per cm³, corresponding to an extremely low electric current ∼10^-17 A.

火焰离子化检测器（FID）和电子捕获检测器（ECD）是用于分析气相色谱（GC）色谱柱排放的两个样品检测器。这两个检测器都涉及样品分子的电离，然后使用法拉第杯测量气体中的电流。

本文测试了一种新发现的离子计数方法，即纳米技术分子标记（NMT），以替代GC中的法拉第杯。在这种方法中，单个分子的有效物理体积扩大到10亿倍，从而可以通过光学粒子计数器进行检测。

结果发现，NMT的灵敏度大大高于法拉第杯。NMT中的本底约为200离子/ cm ³，对应于约10 ^-17 A的极低电流。