Basic Principles of Gas Chromatography

Martin R. Hackman
NJ - DEP
Office of Quality Assurance
THE CHROMATOGRAPHIC PROCESS - PARTITIONING

(gas or liquid)
MOBILE PHASE

Sample
Sample
out
in

STATIONARY PHASE
(solid or heavy liquid coated onto a solid or support system)
 GC Methods
Parameter Group Method Compounds
• SDW05.13000’s EPA 502.2 VOC’s
• SDW05.24000’s EPA 551.1 Cl-VOC’s/Pests
• WPP05.04000’s EPA 604 Phenols
• WPP06.03000’s EPA 625 SVOC’s
• SHW06.21000’s SW-846 8141A Org-P Pests
 Instrumentation

 Injection Port - Sample introduction

Manual - Direct Injection

Automated - Autosampler
- Purge and Trap
 Instrumentation - Oven
Temperature Control
• Isothermal • Gradient

240

200

Temp (deg C)
160

120

80

40

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)
 Columns

• Packed

• Capillary
 Polarity

Non-polar - +

Polar
Phases
 Instrumentation - Detectors
Destructive
• Mass Spectral (CI/EI) [625]
• Flame Ionization (FID) [604]
• Nitrogen-Phosphorus (NPD) [8141A]
• Flame Photometric (FPD) [8141A]
• Electrolytic Conductivity (Hall/ELCD) [502.2]
Instrumentation - Detectors

Non-Destructive
• Thermal Conductivity (TCD)
• Electron Capture (ECD) [551.1]
• Photo Ionization (PID) [502.2]
Chromatograms - 551.1
 Chromatograms - 604

Supelco® PTE-5 Supelco® SPB-50

m- Cresol