A guide to selecting a GC system and peripherals for your lab.

Chromatographers often need to balance the convenience of universal-use columns against the sensitivity and resolution of specialized columns. “Where labs may at one time have employed a nonpolar, all-purpose column, they now seek columns engineered for chemical families or even specific methods,” says Timothy Anderson, GC products manager at Phenomenex (Torrance, CA).

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Shimadzu Corp. today Aug. 20) announced the release of each other’s GC instrument control for their respective chromatography data systems. The move provides customers in analytical laboratories with more freedom of choice when selecting a chromatography data system.

Gas chromatography (GC) is a common technique used in analytical chemistry for separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. GC is typically used for separating the different components of a mixture, improving the purity of a particular substance, or identifying a particular compound. GC is a ubiquitous technique, and the various GC instruments available are designed to achieve every requirement of the technique.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed an innovative gas chromatography (GC) method for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in mineral insulating oil using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography with an electron capturedetector (ECD).

Two interesting and fairly recent trends in GC systems are “fast GC” and the use of hydrogen as the carrier gas.

Gas chromatography (GC) was at one time commonly called “GLC,” where the “L” stands for liquid. Inside GC columns are particles of a ceramic or inert material coated with an extremely viscous liquid stationary phase that interacts with the analyte.

Legally sold as “Vanilla Sky” and “Ivory Wave,” bath salts have become very popular for the very dangerous “high” they are providing.