2.1 Introduction and History
This chapter will focus on the components and operation of basic gas chromatography (GC). The general field of chromatography dates back to 1903 with the work of Russian scientist Mikhail Tswett, who separated plant pigments using liquid chromatography. Fritz Prior, as part of his graduate work, developed solid-state gas chromatography in 1947. Modern gas chromatography is generally considered to have been invented by Martin and James in 1952. A review of the history of gas chromatography can be found in Bartle and Myers (2002). Since 1952, gas chromatography has advanced from using solid spheres to act as the stationary phase (gas-solid chromatography) to using liquid coated resins as the stationary phase, and finally to using covalently-bonded stationary phases attached to wall of a capillary column (gas-liquid chromatography). Components of the actual chromatograph have also advanced from many manual parts such as rotary gas flow regulators being updated to electronic flow or mass flow controllers, resin packed column have been replaced with fused silica capillary columns, and manual injection and control of the instrument has been replaced with automated injection and computer control. Most notably is the diversity of detectors utilized today with GC, especially the ability to connect capillary column GCs with mass spectrometers for confirmatory analysis. Additionally, in the past, analyses of a set of samples could take days to complete and required the constant attention of an analyst, but today with the help of computers, a set of samples and standards can be started on the instrument and the scientist can return later with all of the samples analyzed and the data processed. Typical automatic sampler units can hold up to 100 samples. These improvements have greatly increased the capabilities of laboratories and advanced scientific endeavors but in many cases have decreased the analyst’s knowledge of the chromatographic system. But such is the price of advancement and economics. In this chapter, we will discuss the types of samples and analytes that can be analyzed by GC, the components of the GC and their operation, the variety of detectors available today for use with GC, and examples of specific analyses.
| Frank's Homepage |
©Dunnivant & Ginsbach, 2008