Gas Chromatography (GC)

A professor from the University of Pittsburgh received one of the most distinguished awards at the Pittsburgh Conference on the third day of Pittcon 2008 from New Orleans.

Well, it's Pittcon Day 2, and I followed the suggestion of LCGC Columnist John Hinshaw and attended session 410, "Food Science: UV-Vis, NIR, AA, LC, GC, and Electric Nose."

Monday's "General Interest: LC/GC" session delved into a wide array of new techniques and discoveries in the scientific and academic LC/GC communities.

The 2008 Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley Dal Nogare Award was presented Monday morning to John G. Dorsey, the Katherine Blood Hoffman Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University, by Mike Koenigbauer, President of the Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley.

Four years ago, problems were slightly different for HPLC users. However, one main problem remains the same and will continue to remain the same.

Good Morning and welcome to Day 2 of LCGC's coverage of Pittcon 2008 from New Orleans, Louisiana. We have already seen many informative and innovative press conferences and technical sessions, as the rate of technical development in the field of analytical chemistry continues to advance at a staggering pace.

The city of New Orleans has a rich history of merging French and American art, from the iconic fleur-de-lis to the works of Edgar Degas. Unfortunately, sometimes art, whether it's a painting, book, or some other medium, gets damaged due to unforeseen disasters. It is the job of the scientist to pursue the restoration of such precious objet d'art. These types of art recovery efforts were described in the session "Science for Art" at Pittcon 2008.

Phthalates are added to plastics to increase flexibility. Recently, concerns have been raised over the effect of phthalate exposure from plastic materials on human health.

I attended session 220, "Sample Preparation: General," on Sunday afternoon. As Frank Dorman of Restek Corporation, who presided over the session noted, the weather here is much nicer than it was last year in Chicago, and he was happy to see a good crowd gathered for this session.

Given the historic and crucial relationship between New Orleans and the sea, it was appropriate to kick off the Pittcon week with a nautical-based session.

A proud student filling in for his esteemed teacher highlighted the first day of technical sessions as Pittcon returned to the Crescent City.

Sunday afternoon's plenary lecture at Pittcon 2008 was presented by Dr. Leroy Hood, President of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington. The lecture was preceded by the Pittcon Heritage Award presentation, which was awarded to Hood.

Pittcon 2008 got off to a great start here in New Orleans. The liquid chromatography sessions at the Ernest N. Morial Center were interesting and informative, such as the session entitled "Liquid Chromatography at the Extreme: Ultra-pressure and High Temperature."

Good morning and welcome to this, LCGC's third year of live, daily coverage from The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy.

Researchers at Swansea University (Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom) are using GC-MS-TD technology to analyze the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, are designing a tiny sensor that can detect minute quantities of hazardous gases more efficiently and quickly than current devices on the market.

Researchers at Swansea University (Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom) are using GCMS-TD technology to analyze the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are designing a tiny sensor that can detect minute quantities of hazardous gases more efficiently and quickly than current devices on the market.

Screening for important factors during method optimization or in robustness testing involves two-level screening designs, such as fractional factorial and Plackett–Burman designs, as described in Part 1. This second part on screening designs discusses the experimental protocol for executing these designs and the data analysis of their results.

During the last several years, the GC market has experienced strong growth in part because of new product introductions, growth in the petroleum sector, and increased opportunities in various geographies. To shed light on and determine the many realities and trends of the current GC instruments market, Strategic Directions International conducted a global survey of gas chromatography (GC and GC-MS) users. The survey was designed for individuals who are currently using a wide array of GC instruments and consumables, including aftermarket software, components, and accessories. The data were collected over the phone and by an internet-based survey. When necessary, the internet survey was followed up with direct telephone interviews of the appropriate respondents to further clarify answers.

The authors use GPC coupled online to multiangle laser light scattering, refractive index, and ultra violet (UV) detectors for the characterization of Acacia gum (gum arabic).

Since 1950, Pittcon has served as a platform for recognition of scientists whose pioneering research helped make dramatic advances in their specific disciplines. The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), one of the two sponsoring societies that organize Pittcon, first presented its Spectroscopy Award in 1957 and has recognized the work of leading spectroscopists since. The second Pittcon cosponsor, the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP), began recognizing leading analytical chemists with their annual award in 1978. The list of award recipients is a "who's who" of scientists, including Nobel Laureates, whose work advanced scientific discoveries at an amazing pace while laying the groundwork for the development of modern day instrumentation in mass spectrometry (MS), inductively couple plasma (ICP), Fourier-transform (FT)-IR, and hyphenated instrumental techniques.

The second part of the series takes a look at what happens to the pneumatic operating conditions and chromatography with GC oven temperature programming of a wide-bore column.

Work done 60 years ago at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), representing the start of gas chromatography, is outlined in this month's column.

Comprehensive GCxGC was employed for the separation of ICH and USP 1, 2, and 3 pharmaceutical solvents. The significantly improved peak capacity in GCxGC allows a single method for any combination of solvents and mitigates interference due to impurities in the solvents, diluents, analyte matrices, and from column or septum bleed, through the increased separation space.

In this month's "GC Connections" instalment, John Hinshaw discusses computerized pneumatics for gas chromatography. This is the first of a two-part series that reviews computerized pneumatics and some important considerations that arise in the course of normal use.

Since 1950, Pittcon has served as a platform for recognition of scientists whose pioneering research helped make dramatic advances in their specific disciplines. The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), one of the two sponsoring societies that organize Pittcon, first presented its Spectroscopy Award in 1957 and has recognized the work of leading spectroscopists every year since. The second Pittcon co-sponsor, the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP), began recognizing leading analytical chemists with their annual award in 1978. The list of award recipients is a "who's who" of scientists, including Nobel Laureates, whose work advanced scientific discoveries at an amazing pace while laying the groundwork for the development of modern day instrumentation, including mass spectrometry, ICP, FT-IR, and hyphenated instrumental techniques. This two-part article will provide a historical perspective on the accomplishments of several Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award and Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award winners, highlighting some of the work recognized in each decade leading up to Pittcon 2008. Part I will chronicle the years 1957 through 1977 while Part II will highlight the years 1978 through Pittcon 2008.

A study is just beginning in Brisbane, Australia using a mobile gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detected by a breath scanner.

Indian researchers are studying the affects that EPA and DHA (together known as Omega-3), the two main long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids found in oily fish and shellfish, may have had on the brain development of prehistoric ancestors.