Gas Chromatography (GC)

The separation of structurally diverse analytes is often complicated by chance coelutions with other analytes or with matrix related compounds. Often the column is blamed, but while such coelutions make analysis difficult they do not necessarily indicate a faulty column, poor chromatography or method design.

John Hinshaw discusses the effects that peak tailing has on quantitative measurement of peak height and area.

Doug Kitson looks at some of Poland's leading separation science groups.

Malvern Instruments (Westborough, Massachusetts) has more than doubled the size of its web seminar program.

The Pittsburgh Conference released the call for papers for Pittcon 2010, which will be held February 28 to March 5, 2010, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

ACD/Labs (Toronto, Canada) announced the release of new software for target analysis of complicated LC?MS and GC?MS datasets, without the tedious and difficult manual interpretation.

French scientists have developed a GC?MS method, combined with a triple partition extraction step to reduce the amounts of co-extracted fats, for the determination of pesticides in meat-based baby foods.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (San Jose, California) announced that it has been presented with the ACHEMA 2009 Innovation Award for the category of Laboratory and Analytical Techniques.

In this month's "GC Connections", John Hinshaw addresses the causes and effects of peak tailing, as well as ways in which chromatographers can measure and report their misshapen peaks.

John Hinshaw presents his review of all that was new and innovative at Pittcon 2009 in the field of gas chromatography.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation announced that David and Alice Schwartz, founders of Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, California) will receive the organization?s fourth annual Richard J. Bolte Sr. Award for Supporting Industries.

Researchers from the University of Thessaly (Volos, Greece) used a single-drop microextraction technique with gas chromatography (GC) and nitrogen?phosphorus and electron-capture detection to analyze pesticides in vegetables.

Ron Majors brings readers the second part of his yearly review of all that was new and innovative at the annual Pittsburgh Conference.

This article discusses the analysis of a wide range of CWAs at current exposure limits and describes a number of recent beneficial developments in TD and associated analytical technologies for the identification and quantification of CWAs at these levels.

In this article, methods developed for rapid, automated detection of CWAs and TICs using a low thermal mass capillary gas chromatograph coupled to a toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer (TMS) are presented.

Phenomenex Inc. (Torrance, California) raised raised $5,150 for Cheer for Children, a Redondo Beach based non-profit that raises donations to help acutely ill children and their siblings at County-Harbor UCLA Medical Center and for children with orthopedic disabilities at local schools, through a combination of sporting challenges, raffles, and refreshment sales.

An overview of contemporary techniques in environmental analysis.

For the second year in succession Markes International Ltd. (Llantrisant, UK) has been awarded two highly prestigious awards, International Business of the Year, and Company of the Year by the Rhondda Cynon Taf business club.

After a brief illness, noted chromatographer Clarence S. "Bucky" Wentzel passed away Friday, February 20, 2009, at the age of 66.

Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) and Markes International (Llantrisant, UK) have announced a strategic alliance for global distribution and market development of analytical thermal desorption instruments for gas chromatography.

LCGC (Chromatographyonline.com) has developed a pilot program with EARL (EARL2learn.com), the most extensive online library of interactive web-based learning material for analytical chemistry.

GC–MS method is presented for the quantitative determination and confirmation of melamine residues in milk products. The milk sample was cleaned up using Agilent's SampliQ SCX SPE cartridges before derivatization. The derived extracts were analysed by GC–MS with EI in synchronous SIM/scan mode on a Agilent J&W DB-5ms Ultra Inert column.

Ron Majors brings readers his yearly review of all that was new and innovative at the annual Pittsburgh Conference.

The causes and cures for peak tailing are discussed, along with the various ways that chromatographers measure tailing peaks.

A miniature gas chromatograph incorporating a miniaturized chemical trap for enrichment, rapid thermal desorption of the trap, a resistively heated capillary column for programmed GC analysis and a micro-chip-based plasma emission detector (PED) is described. The sampling and chromatographic conditions for the analysis of volatile compounds in air are presented. The performance of the µCAD is illustrated in the universal (carbon) mode and for the selective detection of chlorinated and organo-mercury compounds. Detection limits (DLs) are at the sub-μg/L level in the carbon mode and 10 ng/L for organo-mercury compounds.

Detectors are another link in the chain of signals that a chromatographic analysis generates. After separation, a detector transduces the chemical signals of eluted analytes to an electrical signal that is then recorded and measured. The identities and amounts of analytes are determined from this information. This month in "GC Connections", John Hinshaw examines the environment, set-up and operating conditions necessary to ensure high gas chromatography detector performance and reliability.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, California) and Healex Systems Ltd.(Wilmington, Delaware) announced that Agilent now fully supports Healex's ChemLaunch remote instrument access and control module for Agilent's ChemStation chromatography software.

A team of scientists from Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Abraxis, Inc. compared the a new triclosan test, called "magnetic particle enzyme immunoassay," to the more traditional method-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). They hope that this test, which detects triclosan at a concentration of 20 parts per trillion (ppt)-the equivalent of 1 ounce in 31 million tons, can expedite environmental monitoring of this widely used antibacterial agent in rivers, wells, and other bodies of water.

The Pittsburgh Conference announced a recent co-operative venture with the Professionals' Net Work in Advanced Instrumentation Society (PAI-NET).

Agilent Technologies Inc., (Palo Alto, California) announced a low thermal mass (LTM) system for rapid heating and cooling of its 7890A gas chromatograph (GC), which will greatly increase productivity by significantly reducing analytical cycle times.