On-line testing of gas chromatographic columns with a programmable computing integrator

Summary A program is described which calculates the number of effective plates and the coating efficiency over the entire range of a test chromatogram. The peak widths at half height are derived by assuming a Gaussian peak shape. The interpolated peak width at k=4 is used for computing a standardized number of effective plates. Plate height, column permeability, overall performance and a novel parameter called sampling efficiency are calculated from 5 other figures — i. e. carrier gas code, pressure drop, column length, column temperature and particle size.Dedicated to Dr. Leslie S. Ettre for his 60th birthday.     

Electrochemical detector with a 20 nl volume for micro-columns liquid chromatography

Summary A flow-through two electrode wall-jet cell with a platinum measuring electrode and a cell volume of 20 nl has been designed and evaluated. It has been used to detect phenols by reversed phase liquid chromatography using short micro bore columns. The linear dynamic range between the measured current and the concentration is greater than 10³ (1.5×10^–7–5×10^–4 mol/l) and the minimum analyzable amount was found to be 10 pg for pyrocatechol. A negligible broadening in the detector permits the use of micro columns down to 0.5 mm internal diameter, packed with 5 m particles, without any substantial distortion of eluted zones.Presented at the 14th International Symposium on Chromatography London, September, 1982     

Preparation of apolar glass capillary columns by the barium carbonate procedure

As an extension of previous reports, the barium carbonate procedure has been optimized in detail for the preparation of apolar columns. The aim was to produce optimum overall column characteristics, and to maintain them unchanged under the prolonged influence of the highest possible temperature. The main parameters under optimization were glass variety, leaching of glass surface with aqueous HCl, and amount of barium carbonate deposited, while deactivation and coating were kept constant. The basic column characteristics were adsorption properties and thermostability of deactivation, acid/base behaviour and separation efficiency. They were determined by a new, quantitative testing procedure. Intense leaching was able to eliminate almost totally the differences between glass varieties and to create a well-defined glass surface. While untreated glass, leached glass, and barium carbonate treated glass showed specific weak points in the respective column quality, the combination of leaching and barium carbonate treatment yielded the highest and most stable quality. Some technical modifications of the preparation procedure are described, including deactivation in the gas phase, and use of pentane as a solvent for static coating.     

The chromatographic properties of a mixed-bed stationary phase combining reversed-phase and strong anion exchange properties

Summary The feasibility of using columns prepared by mixing together ion exchange and reversed-phase packing materials, for the simultaneous separation of ionised and unionised molecules, has been examined using a range of test solutes. Columns prepared in this way showed chromatographic properties which were intermediate between those of the individual phases. The dual nature of the retention mechanism allowed the retention of ionisable molecules to be adjusted using pH whilst that of uncharged compounds was unaffected. The simultaneous chromatography of model compounds and their glucuronide, sulphate and glycine conjugates, under a variety of conditions, was demonstrated.     

Surface modification of soft-glass capillaries for gas chromatography by treatment with water vapour

“Leaching” or “etching” by strong mineral acids seems to be a necessary pretreatment step for the most commonly used deactivation procedures of glass capillaries by reaction with either polyethylene glycol or silylation reagents. The acidic sites which are formed on the surface during this acid treatment cannot be completely removed by the subsequent deactivation process. This drawback can be overcome by performing the leaching with water vapour, resulting in an accumulation of cations at the surface and a decrease in the number of silanol groups. Capillaries of this type show excellent properties for the chromatography of strongly basic compounds. After the wash-out of the alkaline surface layer, the acidity of the support is suited for the chromatography of strongly basic as well as strongly acidic compounds. Due to a lack of reactive acidic sites, special deactivation procedures have to be applied to capillaries produced in this way.     

Applications of a miniaturized fluorimetric photodiode array detector for capillary liquid chromatography

A high sensitivity, multichannel fluorescence detector with small volume has been developed for capillary column liquid chromatography. Using an intensified linear photodiode array to monitor fluorescence emission, several important mixtures exhibiting native fluorescence have been examined following high efficiency separation on a capillary column. By correlating mass spectral, fluorescence spectral, and retention time data, information of potential utility in the structural elucidation of aromatic molecules contained in complex mixtures can be obtained. Examples include the separation and spectral examination of the polyaromatic compounds in samples of both biological and environmental interest.     

Evaluation of a PTV injector for quantitative analysis of volatile compounds at low concentrations

The performance of a PTV injector operated in the solvent venting mode with Tenax in the glass insert was evaluated with synthetic mixtures containing 5 to 50 ng of n-alkanes, ethyl esters, n-alcohols, and carboxylic acids. The influence of the sampled amount, the injected volume, and the nature of the solvent on accuracy and precision were studied. Coefficients of variation of relative (normalized) peak areas and absolute peak area ratios of each compound to the standard are of the order of 5 %.     

Stainless steel capillary columns for high temperature gas chromatography

A layer of elemental silicon has been deposited on the surface of stainless steel tubing by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Two kinds of capillary column were prepared from the deactivated tubing: cross-linked, silanol-terminated polydime-thylsiloxane wall coated open tubular (WCOT) columns and molecular sieve 13X porous layer open tubular (PLOT) columns. Unlike fused silica capillary columns, stainless steel WCOT and PLOT columns can be operated at temperatures in excess of 400°C. High temperature simulated distillation has been performed successfully with a macro bore WCOT column and rapid PNA (paraffin, naphthene, and aromatic) analysis with a multidimensional gas solid chromatographic (GSC) system using PLOT columns.     

Carbon dioxide supercritical fluid chromatography-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry

Summary The coupling of carbon dioxide supercritical fluid chromatography with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (SFC-FTIR) is a powerful tool for the separation and on-line identification of non-volatile compounds. The IR transparency of carbon dioxide in the Fermi resonance bands region versus its density has been studied. Functional groups with stretching vibrations outside the transparent window of carbon dioxide are examined. SFC-FTIR separations allow Gram-Schmidt reconstruction chromatograms or IR window chemigrams with high quality spectra to be obtained. This SFC-FTIR lightpipe (flow cell, beam condensing optics, narrow band detector) has allowed detection limits of 250ng for benzonitrile and 70ng for methyl benzoate to be reached. The feasibility of very rapid SFC-FTIR separations is shown along with the subsequent peak spectra.     

A fast procedure to immobilize polyethylene glycols in glass capillary columns

Polyethylene glycols can be immobilized in glass capillary columns by a new procedure involving covering the glass walls with a layer of graphitized carbon black and by flowing a mixture of the stationary phase and dicumyl peroxide. After curing and conditioning the column is ready for use. Excellent performance is reported for Carbowax 20 M and high molecular weight glycols. For other glycols the immobilized layer is less stable and can be washed out.