Gas Chromatography Basics

Overview

This course will help you to gain a sound working knowledge of basic gas chromatographic analysis, principles, and procedures and enable you to develop a greater understanding of theoretical and practical relationships. Throughout seven, one-hour sessions, you will build the expertise you need to choose optimum parameters for separating species present in complex mixtures, and to increase your on-the-job efficiency.

When and Where

The course will meet online for seven, one-hour sessions.

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Key Topics

• Instrumentation
• Features of the chromatogram
• Components of a GC system
• Qualitative and Quantitative analysis
• Special Applications

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How You'll Benefit

• Gain a better understanding of GC theory.
• Improve your ability to choose the optimum separation mechanism for a given sample.
• Know how to choose the best quantitative control analysis method.
• Increase your knowledge of GC detectors.
• Know the advantages of fused silica open tubular columns.
• Understand the use of hyphenated GC techniques.

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Course Instructor

Dennis Anderson retired from Akzo Nobel Surfactants America following a 40+-year career as an industrial analytical chemist. Mr. Anderson also taught graduate and undergraduate general, analytical, and physical chemistry courses for 23 years at Roosevelt University. He is currently part of the adjunct chemistry faculty at Triton College.

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Who Should Attend

This course is ideal for chemistry professionals from industry, government, or academia involved in the analysis, synthesis, or quality control areas. It will be especially valuable to those who develop new processes, synthesis procedures or analyze samples from R&D and production. Participants should have a background in general chemistry. Experience with instrumental analysis is helpful, but not required.

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Agenda

Instrumentation

• Function of essential components
• How have gas chromatographs evolved over time

Features of the chromatogram

• Retention time/volume
• Separation of components in a mixture
• How good a separation is required

Theory

• Separation mechanisms
• Theoretical plates
• Van Deemter - Golay equation
• Factors affecting separation
• Resolution of peaks in a chromatogram

Components of a gas chromatographic system

Injection techniques

• Injection port [split, split-less, on-column]
• Cold injection port
• Solid samples
• Headspace analysis
• Large volume injections

Columns

• Packed
• Fused silica open tubular
• Stationary phase selection
• Temperature programming
• Flow programming

Detectors

• Thermal conductivity
• Flame ionization
• Electron capture
• Element selective detectors
• Other detectors

Data systems

• Strip chart recorders
• Computer based data systems

Qualitative analysis

• Retention time/volume
• Relative retention time
• “Spiking Techniques”
• Use of multiple columns with different polarity
• Kovats retention indices
• Gas chromatography – mass spectroscopy

Quantitative analysis

• Peak area normalization
• Response factors
• Peak areas x response factors
• Internal standard
• External calibration

Hyphenated techniques

• Gas chromatography – infrared spectroscopy
• Gas chromatography – mass spectroscopy

Special Applications

• Low volatility samples
• Use of derivatives to improve volatility and thermal stability
• Chemical and thermal degradation

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System Requirements

You need a high-speed connection to the Internet and an up-to-date version of your web browser. The audio portion of the live session will be provided via VOIP and US toll conference call. VOIP is dependant on the quality and speed of your internet connection so a high-speed connection is strongly recommended. A hands-free headset or speaker phone is highly recommended.

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Course Fees

Note: Each participant must register individually for this course.

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