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Thar Instruments (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has expanded their European team by four new members since the company's acquisition of Berger SFC in 2007.

PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) announced the "Ettre Award" to honor a young scientist in the field of gas chromatography.

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What are some examples of preparative GC applications? According to R.P.W. Scott in Gas Chromatography (1), ?[t]here are a number of unique problems associated with preparative gas chromatography. Firstly, it is difficult to recycle the mobile phase and thus large volume of gas are necessary. Secondly, the sample must be fully vaporized onto the column to ensure radial distribution of the sample across the column. Thirdly, the materials of interest are eluted largely in a very dilute form from the column and therefore must be extracted or condensed from the gas stream which is also difficult to achieve efficiently.?

On-site sample preparation using MEPS for wastewater analysis Paul Wynne, Roy Hibbert, Dan DiFeo and Peter Dawes. A simple, optimized approach to automated SPE Yanick Bouchard, Shahana Huq and Michael Campognone. Tips & tricks: BEWARE of mismatch Thorsten Hofe, PSS Polymer Standards Service. Seeing green Hian Kee Lee from the National University of Singapore speaks to Alasdair Matheson about his cutting-edge development of an array of simple and "environmentally friendly" sample preparation techniques for environmental analysis. News All the news for April 2008. Incognito Zosimus' successor airs his controversial views on how stale GC has become as a separation technique. Market trends & analysis Glenn Cudiamat provides a report on laboratory spray dryers and comments on the expected market growth in coming years.

It has often been stated (or maybe overstated) that the column is the heart of the chromatograph. Without the proper choice of column and appropriate operating conditions, method development and optimization of the high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation can be frustrating and unrewarding experiences. Since the beginning of modern liquid chromatography, column technology has been a driving force in moving separations forward. Today, the driving forces for new column configurations and phases are the increased need for high throughput applications, for high sensitivity assays and to characterize complex samples such as peptide digests and natural products.

This month's installment of "Column Watch" is the second part of a two-part series in which columnist Ron Majors examines the trends and highlights in columns and consumables at Pittcon 2008.

This article details the principles of hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and its complementary selectivity to reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Advantages of the technique that result from the use of low-viscosity, high-organic concentration mobile phases will be demonstrated. For example, LC–mass spectrometry (MS) sensitivity is enhanced and higher flow rates and longer columns can be used effectively with such mobile phases in HILIC. Common stationary phases employed in HILIC are reviewed.

This article presents an overview of high performance liquid chromatography stationary phases with enhanced stability at high pH, focusing on the methods by which they were prepared. Among the many alternatives, the authors introduce reversed phases based upon metallized silica supports that show superior performance during stability testing at high pH, when compared with conventional C18 phases based upon bare silica.

After nearly 10 years of writing "Milestones in Chromatography," resident historian Leslie Ettre will step down from his position as an LCGC columnist.

The use of high temperature is playing an increasingly important role in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method development and optimization. Major advantages of high-temperature LC (HTLC) include shortened separation time, increased efficiency, and reduction in the use of organic solvent, but the accompanying decrease in mobile phase viscosity provides a lowering of column back pressure, allowing even faster separations, use of longer columns, and use of smaller particles. Here the author summarizes some of the latest findings in HTLC and addresses issues raised when columns and analytes are heated beyond the "normal" operating conditions.

An ever-increasing need for chiral separations has led to a more generic approach for screening a variety of chiral stationary phases. These new screening methodologies have been supported by new instrument development, new chiral product performance, and a new level of user knowledge. Supercritical fluid chromatography has continued to grow, supported by published applications from the separations industry. An expanded field of polysaccharide phases has been made available from a variety of sources with some unique variants of the most common cellulose and amylose derivatives.

In the leadoff article, columnist Ron Majors provides an overview of column developments. He looks at various alternatives to high-throughput separations including small porous particles, monoliths and superficially-porous particles. Microfluidics and parallel column systems provide further alternatives. An alternative approach to isocratic method development uses optimized stationary phase combinations. Brief coverage of new phases for hydrophilic interaction chromatography, high temperature operation, chiral and mixed mode columns and finally supercritical fluid chromatography columns round out the overview. At the conclusion, Majors speculates on future directions in column technology.

Scientists Arlin Gyberg, Clayton McNeff, and Ben Yan developed the Mcgyan process for manufacturing biodiesel.

In this article, silica-based monolithic columns are compared and contrasted to packed microparticulate columns. Some of the challenges developing commercial silica rods and encapsulated monolith columns are described, including the development of a 2-mm i.d. column. A study of wall effects in these monolith columns was performed. Future trends and challenges in improving the performance of silica-based monolith columns are described.

Father Joseph Michael Levy, Ph.D, passed away suddenly on March 6, 2008.

Based upon early theoretical predictions of thought leaders in the beginnings of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the continuous evolution of a reduction of particle sizes in HPLC column technology along with improvements in instrumentation has led to the increased use of particles in the sub-2-mm range, which places certain constraints on operating conditions. In this article, Gerard Rozing puts theory and practice into perspective when using small particles at increased operating pressure and, in particular, looks at thermal effects that can affect overall performance.

The 32nd International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography and the 5th GCXGC Symposium will be held at the Palazzo dei Congressi, Riva del Garda, Italy, in May.

They may come with a hefty price tag but these earphones reportedly take sound onto a new level. Denon's latest AH-C751 earphones cost ?150 but the "Metal Bullet" design uses ultra-rigid machined aluminum that does not resonate, unlike plastic housings used in less expensive products. Denon's "Acoustic Optimiser" balances the sound pressure before and behind the diaphragm to reportedly give greater dynamics and fast transient response. All the contacts are made of gold, as is the 3.5 mm plug. They come with three pairs of ear adapters, a 0.8 m extension cord and rigid travel case.

CCC is an excellent alternative to avoid the problems associated with solid-phase adsorbents, which include irreversible adsorption of sample and the need to replace expensive columns. As a result, CCC is gaining popularity as a purification tool.

CCC is an excellent alternative to avoid the problems associated with solid-phase adsorbents, which include irreversible adsorption of sample and the need to replace expensive columns. As a result, CCC is gaining popularity as a purification tool.

Piccaro, Inc. announced an ultra-trace gas analyzer for precisely measuring isotopic CO2, a marker of the type of CO2, and its origin. The instrument is based upon cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) technology, exclusively licensed from Stanford University, Stanford, California and further enhanced at Piccaro.

Father Joseph Michael Levy, Ph.D, passed away suddenly on March 6, 2008. He earned the B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, and later went on to earn two doctorates, one in organic chemistry and one in analytical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Levy worked as an analytical chemist for the Standard Oil Company and was well known in the GC community for his many articles and presentations at national and international meetings.

May Editorial List

LCGC December 2007 BPA Statement

What is centrifugal partition chromatography, and what are its main applications? Steve Brown: Briefly, in centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) one liquid acts as the stationary phase and a second solvent, containing the analytes, passes through it. Separation is achieved by partition of the solute between the two immiscible solvents comprising the mobile and stationary phases.

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