The present invention refers to a surface ionization detector comprises an emitter, a heating rod, a collecting electrode, a reducing liner and a housing. The emitter is made of molybdenum, platinum or alloy, and in the form of cylinder or a wire spiral. The heating rod heats and supports the metal emitter. When the heating rod is heated to 300-500° C., organic amine compounds collide with the surface of the emitter, generating positive ions through surface thermal ionization and thus are detected. The lowest detecting limit value of tertiary amine by the detector in the present invention can achieve to 10−14 g/s. The response to other hydrocarbons, ketones, etc., is 5-6 orders of magnitude lower than that of organic amines. The detector can selectively detect amines, hydrazines and their derivatives, and so on. The detector can be used as a detector for a gas chromatography system adopting capillary column or packed column, or alternatively be used alone as a sensor.
