Gas Chromatography (GC)

Well-known LCGC Columnists John Dolan and John Hinshaw provide their list of recommended sessions.

Good morning and welcome to LCGC's third and final day of conference coverage from Pittcon 2007.

Well-known LCGC Columnists John Dolan and John Hinshaw provide their list of recommended sessions.

Good morning, fellow Pittcon conferees, and welcome to Day 2 of LCGC North America's ongoing coverage from Pittcon 2007.

Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley Dal Nogare Award Dr. John W. Dolan was the proud recipient of the Dal Nogare Award at Pittcon 2007, adding another bright note to his illustrious career.

The 2007 Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry was presented to Norman J. Dovichi, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, on Monday afternoon at Pittcon 2007.

Attendees continue to trickle in, as snowstorms around the country continue to disrupt air travel. For those like me who thought, "Chicago in February? Hooray!"

Yesterday, Andrew Tiplerwas going nowhere fast because of airport delays. Today, he was discussing how to accelerate your gas chromatography runs.

Shana Kelley received the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award in a ceremony on Monday morning of Pittcon 2007.

Eight presentations on a variety of LC-MS applications were given in Session 170 on this first afternoon at Pittcon. One of the most interesting was session 170-6, "Techniques of LC-MS in Forensics Analysis." The speaker, Michael C. Zumwalt, discussed the variety of LC-MS instrumentation available to meet both qualitative and quantitative needs. Among the interesting applications he discussed were those for detecting drugs of abuse and explosives. Workplace drug testing and forensic toxicology are examples of these applications. LC-MS continues to be a rapidly growing technique, and the ways in which it can be used in forensic analysis are quite varied. Serial measurement systems are used for quantitation, while parallel systems are best for qualitative applications. Serial systems such as single quadrupole and triple quadrupole mass spectrometers are very useful for detecting drugs of abuse in oral fluids. A particular advantage noted by the speaker is the ease of sample collection, which can even be done in the field, for example, by a police officer.

Well-known LCGC Columnists John Dolan and John Hinshaw provide their list of recommended sessions.

Most arrived at Pittcon 2007 wet, cold, and frustrated. But a the blizzard whooping around Chicago couldn't bring David Schwartz down today when he was presented with the 2007 Pittcon Heritage Award.

As most of us traveled by air to Chicago this weekend, we all passed through airport security and the various drills like taking off our shoes, removing metal objects and taking the all-important laptop out of its case.

Sunday afternoon's plenary lecture at Pittcon 2007 was given by Charles M. Lieber and was titled "Nanowire Nanoelectric Devices for Detection of and Interfacing to Biological Systems."

Pittcon 2007 opened with a bang here in Chicago, albeit a snowy bang. All the liquid falling outside, whether in rain, snow, or ice form, was nothing compared to the liquid chromatography sessions.

Good morning, and welcome to the opening day of LCGC's "Meeting Report" from Pittcon 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.

Separation instrument techniques are among the most widely used technologies in the analytical instrumentation market. It spans the entire industrial and regional marketplace. The lab separations market includes chromatographic techniques like analytical and preparative HPLC, GC, IC, TLC, flash, and low pressure LC.

Each month in our Technology Forum we will feature a discussion between industry experts on various trends and issues in the chromatography field. This month's Technology Forum looks at the topic of Pittcon 2007 and the trends and issues surrounding it. Joining us for this discussion are Tom Ricci with Ricci Communications and LCGC Columnists John Dolan and John Hinshaw.

According to "Column Watch" Editor Ron Majors, Type C silica is a term introduced by Dr. Joseph Pesek of San Jose State University (California).

This article presents the findings from an analysis conducted on sensitivity in GC on the basis of the complex group of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and PAH derivatives.

Through the years, Pittcon has provided a platform for leading researchers to present new breakthroughs in their scientific endeavors.

Beginning in February, Steve Brown, LCGC technical editor of 18 years, will answer your technical questions. Each month, one question will be selected to appear in this space, so we welcome your submissions. Please send all questions to the attention of "Ask the Editor" at lcgcedit@lcgcmag.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Gas chromatography (GC) coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) offers unique solutions for various analytical applications including the analysis of food quality, authenticity and safety markers. This article provides a general overview of TOF-MS basic features, highlighting its advantages and limitations compared with GC using conventional mass analysers. Examples of recent results obtained for selected food contaminants and flavour components are described to illustrate the potential of this recently introduced technique.

Capillary extraction (CEx) is used to study the solventless in-tube extraction of naphthalene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, chrysene, benzo(a)pyrene and coronene in aqueous samples prepared by analyte spiking into clean waters or, as an alternative, by using the generator–column method of sample preparation. Analysis of laden extractors is conveniently performed by high-resolution gas chromatography (GC), with a flame-ionization detector (FID). Extraction set-ups and main extraction variables are investigated from a practical point of view. For 2- to 4-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), equilibrium times are within a few minutes, analytical sensitivity is in the parts-per-billion (ppb) range and reproducibility is better than 10% relative standard deviation (RSD) (n = 6). Coronene behaviour is unique and presumably determined by extreme hydrophobicity and thus very negligible aqueous solubility: in-tube extraction of coronene seems possible only if starting from..

The environmental market peaked about fifteen years ago when the United States government passed a large body of new environmental laws and strengthened existing ones, dramatically increasing the number of mandated tests. As a result, the analytical instruments market received a boost in new instrument sales. While growth from the environmental market has slowed considerably since, the total market is still quite significant.

You have purchased a new gas chromatograph. Your company's safety office has completed a review of your lab's supplies. Before setting up your gas chromatograph, you read the instructions and familiarize yourself with the instrument. You might even give some thought to the exposure risks for the various substances in your samples. Yet, what about the less visible risks inherent in the gas delivery system that makes this a gas chromatograph?

The analysis of peptides and additives using a new HPLC innovative column technology, Pathfinder, was shown. For the analysis of flavours in lemon juice GC–MS with a new MS library, FFNSC, with linear retention indices was used.

Soft drink formulas often include preservatives, artificial sweeteners, flavours or caffeine in their list of ingredients. Using the Acclaim OA column, as many as eight common additives may be determined in a single run. Many of these additives are hydrophilic organic acids for which this column was designed. Notably, benzoate and sorbate, which do not resolve on C18 columns at low pH, are fully separated.

Column lifetime is a more and more important issue when developing an analytical method for HPLC. Besides sample treatment, column cleaning and storage, operational parameters of the analytical method will have an influence on column lifetime. This question may not always be addressed early enough in the methods development process.