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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.

Remember Harold McNair: Three Fundamental Areas of Understanding in Gas Chromatography

Tony Taylor is Group Technical Director of Crawford Scientific Group and CHROMacademy. His background is in pharmaceutical R&D and polymer chemistry, but he has spent the past 20 years in training and consulting, working with Crawford Scientific Group clients to ensure they attain the very best analytical science possible. He has trained and consulted with thousands of analytical chemists globally and is passionate about professional development in separation science, developing CHROMacademy as a means to provide high-quality online education to analytical chemists. His current research interests include HPLC column selectivity codification, advanced automated sample preparation, and LCâMS and GCâMS for materials characterization, especially in the field of extractables and leachables analysis.

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.

The LCGC Blog: Electronic Flow and Pressure Control in Gas Chromatography: Opening the Lid of the Black Box!

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.

Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Coupled with Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS) for the Characterization of Cigar Leaves

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

Capillary Gas Chromatography (GC): Getting the Best Separation Without Turning (Too Many) Wrenches

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. 

Hard-Won Lessons in GC

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

Hard-Won Lessons in Gas Chromatography

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

The LCGC Blog: The Future of Separation Science: Goodbye Old Friends

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.

Practical GC: Selectivity Differences Resulting from Analytes Interacting with the Solvent and Stationary Phase

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.

Enhancing Flame Ionization Detector Capabilities with Post-Column Reaction

Sophia Barhdadi works as a scientific collaborator for Sciensano. She obtained her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences with her research on the chemical and toxicological assessment of e-cigarette liquids. She is continuing her research on e-cigarettes and related products in Sciensano.

Michael Canfyn works as a technical expert in Sciensano and supports the GC analyses of several research projects within the service Medicines and Health Products.

Sanae El Merabety has an advanced master’s in industrial pharmacy and currently works as QA Packaging Representative at Eli Lilly and Company.

Patricia Courselle works as a senior scientist in the service Medicines and Health Products of Sciensano. This service acts as the Belgian Official Medicine Control Laboratory and National Reference Laboratory for the quality control of medicines and consumer products.

Vera Rogiers is professor emeritus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She has a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and was for many years head of the department of In Vitro Toxicology and Dermato-Cosmetology. She is currently the holder of the Chair Mireille Aerens for the Development of Alternative Methods at the VUB and the Director of the Innovation Center-3Rs (IC-3Rs).

Tamara Vanhaecke has a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences, is full professor in toxicology and head of the department In Vitro Toxicology and Dermato-Cosmetology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research is focused on the development of human relevant liver-based in vitro systems to detect chemical‑induced liver toxicity or injury. She also collaborates in several research projects that address toxicity concerns related to different types of consumer products.

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.

Development of a “Freeze-Pour” Sample Preparation Method for the GC Analysis of Semivolatile Flavouring Chemicals Present in E-cigarette Refill Liquids

Gas Chromatography (GC) | Topics