The role of column technology in capillary gas chromatography

After having witnessed, over a period of more than 20 years, the extremely difficult early development of capillary gas chromatography, the growth of scientific understandign, and finally its sudden blossoming into a commonly accepted technique, the author is confronted with a dichotomy. On the one hand, there are the dramatic advances in the fields of column preparation, and of sampling techniques. Implementation of these advances should logically result in correspondingly drastic progress in the average quality of application work in drastic progress in the average quality of application work in capillary gas chromatography. On the other hand, however, such progress is lacking. The greater the practical potential, the smaller the fractionm of that potential which is practically exploited. The reason is that most users interpret te recent advances as exempting them from their obligation to know and think about the many details of practical work, and to attempt standardized work with standard columns and techniques. Standardization of routine work is beneficial, provided the standards are optimized-a condition which all too often remains unfulfilled. Research work, performed in a realm of ever new and unknown conditions, is of poor quality when done by standardized means. Since the most critical part of optimization is column selection, the capillary column must be mastered as a familiar tool in the hands of the investigator. This is hardly possible in the absence of any direct contact with column technology.