Gas Chromatography (GC)

This time of year tends to serve as a reminder that while women may be entering more degrees and careers in science than ever before, there is still a need to advocate for gender parity in many sectors.

Barry L Karger is Director Emeritus of the Barnett Institute, and is the James L. Waters Emeritus Chair and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Northeastern University in Boston.

The ability to predict issues and highlight unusual method parameters, before ever entering the laboratory, allows you to be alert for potential issues with a separation, or to change the method (where applicable) prior to initiating any experimentation. These detective skills, when applied in retrospect, are also invaluable for troubleshooting problems with the chromatographic separation or quantitative results.

When applying Golay’s equation for height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) to capillary GC, you should ask three key questions.

QuEChERS has been updated to suit modern instrumentation. Now also “efficient and robust,” QuEChERSER is a “mega-method” that covers a wider polarity range.

We are all familiar with Golay’s equation relating to height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) in GC. But do we understand it correctly?

This novel gas chromatography (GC)–MS approach enables analysis of the suspected mutagens bis(pinacolato)diboron (BPD) and tetrahydroxydiboron (BBA) found at low-levels in certain intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), even in the presence of boron from other sources.

In this month’s blog, we provide information about the Subdivision on Chromatography and Separations Chemistry (SCSC) of the Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS), sharing our main goals and introducing our newly appointed executive board members.

New approaches to sample preparation are being developed for microbial metabolomics to address the inherent complexity of this type of analysis.

Gas chromatographers may not have the latest equipment they need. Here, we give a list of tools and consumables that can help make workflows more efficient, detection limits lower, and GC instruments cleaner.

UV spectroscopy is an effective approach for tandem or parallel detection in gas chromatography, particularly in separations that require narrow bandwidths, such as GCxGC.

This study illustrates the importance of column selection during GC method development.

Are the days numbered for long linear runs of univariate data in separation science?

The late Harold McNair had a remarkable 60-year career as a chromatographer. He taught us many valuable lessons, three of which we discuss here.

Electronic pneumatic controllers (EPC) were introduced into gas chromatography (GC) systems from the mid-1990s onwards and do an excellent job of regulating gas flow and pressure for GC inlets, columns, and detectors. Regular readers will know that, while I support innovation and improvements in engineering capability, I am inherently skeptical of anything with the “black box” tag and believe that unless we inherently understand how something works, we can neither fully harness the potential benefits, nor properly troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Therefore, read on as we open the lid and take a good look inside these particular black boxes.

HS-SPME-GC–MS was combined with OPLS-DA data analysis to tentatively identify eight chemical markers to differentiate the geographical origins of cigar leaf samples.

How far can you get on optimizing a GC separation without changing the column? Pretty far, in fact.

The May 2021 ChromTalks, presented by LCGC and CHROMacademy, brought together 12 world-renowned chromatography experts discussing some of the most important lessons and experiences that shaped their careers. This month, we look back at ChromTalks and share the lessons learnt from these great speakers, with topics including sample preparation, GC, and GC–MS.

At ChromTalks, experienced speakers shared mistakes made during their careers.

I do not believe in classic linear separations anymore—further, I think separations science is wildly underdeveloped and under-appreciated.

Different stationary phases, solvents, and compounds using different split ratios demonstrating impacts to selectivity as a function of analytes interacting with the solvent and the stationary phase are examined.

The incorporation of a post-column reaction using a 3D-printed, two-stage microreactor is showing groundbreaking performance improvements for flame ionization detection in many gas chromatography applications—and delivers carbon universal response.

HS-GC analysis is presented as an excellent method for the analysis of high volatile components in e-liquids. For the analysis of semivolatile ingredients, an additional sample preparation step is proposed based on a LLE followed by a freeze-out of the matrix components.

We take a look at the past, present, and future of applying gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) techniques to non-targeted screening (NTS) in various disciplines, assessing both the opportunities and the challenges.

Recycling plastics involves catalytically cracking polymers back into their constituent monomer mixtures, which require careful characterization for further processing. There is a resurging need for detectors that can detect and characterize heteroatom-containing species.