Gas Chromatography (GC)

According to a report in Nature News, nitrogen trifluoride is an extremely potent greenhouse gas used in the electronics industry, which is at least four times more abundant in the atmosphere than previously thought. Scientists recommend that to better control its use, NF3 should be added to the list of gases regulated under future climate-change agreements.

This month in "GC Connections", in the first of a two-part series, John Hinshaw relates what happens when high-voltage spikes attack modern electronic equipment, what to do when they occur, and how to set up equipment to minimize damage and loss of data.

Phenomenex, Inc., (Torrance, California) has been named one of the 15 best small workplaces in the U.S. by the Wall Street Journal.

Pittcon and Wiley-Blackwell announced that they will produce four webinars in 2008-2009 to kickoff  the new "Wiley-Blackwell/Pittcon Webinar Series."

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (San Jose, CA), t will host an informative seminar on the latest advances and applications for its vast range of GC products.

This month, Chromatography Online's Technology Forum looks at the topic of GC and the trends and issues surrounding it. Joining us for this discussion is Trisa Robarge of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kaj Petersen of GERSTEL, and Sky Countryman of Phenomenex.

In this month's installment, Kurt Grob's life and achievements are described by someone who knew him like few other people did: his son, Koni Grob.

Researchers Philip Marriott from the RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), Warawut Tiyapongpattana, and Prapin Wilairat from the Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand) have developed a 2D GC with FID method for determining the composition of biofuels that extends to the C4-C24 esters. They reasoned that a 2D separation, based first on boiling point then on polarity, would provide better resolution of the components.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) announced it has created a specialized training program to address the current melamine crisis in China. The program will be available in early October and is part of Agilent University, a multifaceted education program for Agilent's customers in China.

New research led by David Valentine of University of California at Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA), Chris Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) (Woodshole, MA), George Wardlaw, a graduate student in the Marine Science program at UCSB, and three other co-authors from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and WHOI details how microbes are dining on thousands of compounds that make up the oil seeping from the sea floor.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (San Jose, CA.) has announced that its Atlas Chromatography Data System now supports Microsoft Windows Vista operating system.

The 9th Csaba Horváth Medal Award Symposium, to be held on April 28-29, 2009 at the Hartford Convention Center (Hartford, Connecticut), announced they are accepting papers for oral and poster presentations on the topics of Advances in Separation Technologies, Multidimensional Separations, UPLC, LC-MS, Biomarkers, and Separation of Enantiomers.

John Hinshaw concludes his two-part series on electrical issues in the laboratory.

A novel method that significantly improves the accuracy and reliability of "unknown" compound identification for volatile organic compounds by GC-MS is described.

Penn State researchers have discovered that pesticide build-up could lead to poor honey bee health. The researchers analyzed pollen, brood, adult bees, and wax samples. The results show unprecedented levels of fluvalinate and coumaphos - pesticides used in the hives to combat varroa mites - in all comb and foundation wax samples. They also found lower levels of 70 other pesticides and metabolites of those pesticides in pollen and bees.

Two scientists based in Taiwan have combined dynamic liquid phase extraction with nanoscale volumes for GC-MS analysis, scaling down the corresponding microscale procedure to what they claim is "the smallest amount of extraction phase and sample solution in [the] GC-MS."

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts) announced that it had received five Scientific Computing 2008 Readers’ Choice awards for software in four categories: laboratory information management systems (LIMS), bioinformatics, chromatography, and spectroscopy.

Scientists from Kangwon National University in South Korea undertook a comprehensive study to identify the types of compounds in vehicle AC unit emissions, using gas chromatography with four types of detection: olfactometry, flame ionisation detection (FID), mass spectrometry (MS) and atomic emission detection (AED). It was conducted on a lab-scale model unit that contained a rogue AC evaporator from a vehicle that was associated with unpleasant odours and had only 4000 km on the clock.

Researchers from the Monell Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) used GC-MS techniques to sample air above basal cell tumors and found a different profile of chemical compounds compared to the skin in healthy people. Human skin has many airborne chemical molecules known as VOCs, many of which have odors.

Torion Technologies Inc. (American Fork, Utah), a manufacturer of automated miniaturized, hand-portable GC and toroidal ion trap mass spectrometry (TMS) technology, has announced a partnership with Smiths Detection (Danbury, Connecticut), part of the global technology business, Smiths Group and a technology developer and manufacturer of sensors that detect and identify explosives, chemical and biological agents, weapons, and contraband.

An optical fiber detector has been developed by Portuguese scientists for the measurement of simple alcohols in industrial atmospheres following GC separation.

Italian scientists have conducted a systematic study of drug levels in the nails of newborn babies as an indicator of drug exposure during pregnancy using GC-MS.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (Waltham, Massachusetts), has acquired the analytical technologies and environment instrumentation divisions of Chemito Technologies Pvt. Ltd (Mumbai, India).

Currently papers are being accepted for the 9th Csaba Horvath Medal Award Symposium to be held on April 28-29, 2009 at the Hartford Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

Researchers at the Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids, in Winston Salem, North Carolina have discovered undesirable levels of unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids instead of omega-3 fatty acids in tilapia using a GC method.

Verdure Technologies, Inc., an Idaho based biotech green technologies company, moved into its new research and development facility in Pocatello Idaho.

Quantum Analytics (Foster City, California) and LEAP Technologies (Carrboro, North Carolina) have announced a co-marketing partnership to offer efficiency improving chromatography and mass spectrometer systems, including new developments in front-end automation.

Scientists at the National Police Scientific Institute in Ecully, France have been analyzing solvents trapped within crystals of cocaine hydrochloride with a static headspace-gas chromatography method. This method helps them ascertain the drug's country of origion, which can help determine the distribution chain.

The University of Technology (St. Andrew, Jamaica) has received a multi-million dollar donation of lab equipment from Johnson & Johnson (Canada).

Capillary flow technology (CFT) devices are microfluidic components that extend capillary GC capabilities through simple and robust connections between pressure/flow modules and columns. One of the most powerful and simple is the CFT Tee. This is especially useful in GC–MS analysis providing (1) rapid column and inlet maintenance without MSD venting and (2) the capability of rapidly removing late eluting interferences from the column by forcing their retreat into the injection port through "backflushing". Removing these interferences improves column and detector longevity and analytical integrity. Backflushing is very valuable for trace GC–MS analysis in samples from complex matrices like soil, foods or tissues. The CFT Tee uses pressure-pulsed injections and constant flow mode with minimal loss in the MS signal. This approach will be useful to all GC–MS users who want to improve their instrument uptime.