How does Gas Chromatography Work Simple?

Chromatography literally means "color writing". This process was first developed in 1906 by Russian scientists separate complex chemicals from each other. This process was used for separating chlorophyll in plants.

There are various techniques of chromatography. Such as column chromatography, paper chromatography, and gas-liquid partition chromatography. Here in this article, I will be discussing Zero Air Generator for Gas Chromatography also referred to as vapor chromatography or gas-liquid partition chromatography.

Gas chromatography is a type of column chromatography where instead of solids as the traveling particles, here you use gases as the mobile phase. This process requires the use of a gas chromatograph machine for chemical analysis. It is automated through this piece of laboratory equipment.

So let’s discuss the brief procedure of gas chromatography and its working. Consider the following points.

1. The first and foremost component of gas chromatography is the Eluant also known as the Carrier Gas compartment. This is what it does. This part carries the sample you load inside the machine to be separated. The carrier gas is loaded through a gas cylinder fitted externally. This carrier gas is going to be the mobile phase for your chromatography machine.
2. A rating meter is connected to the carrier gas compartment to control the rate of flow of the gas. Fine control of the rate of flow will indicate a clear separation of the components of the supplied sample.
3. An inlet port or splitter is the point through which the gas enters the machine.
4. Now is the time to insert the sample into the carrier gas. You will need a syringe to insert the gas into the carrier gas. The gas inserted vaporizes and mixes thoroughly with the carrier gas.

5. There is a thin capillary columns tube inside the container coated with a thin layer of stationary phase on the inside of the capillary walls. The length of the capillary tube can vary between 30-60 m or 100-200 ft. It is coiled and contained inside an oven to ensure that the sample remains in gaseous form only. The temperature can be manually controlled.

1. The sample gas separates into its components while it moves along the capillary tube.
2. The detectors are fitted along the ends of the capillary to detect the separated gases and record them. Usually, mass spectrometers or thermal conductivity detectors can be used for detecting the gases.
3. A chromatograph graph is drawn simultaneously by the data analyzer/recorder. This shows the number of various gases emitted from the sample.

Procedure for using a gas chromatography

Using the syringe, the tiny sample of gases inserted into the capillary tube. The components are placed inside the oven to instantly vaporize the components and keep them on that stage only. A neutral gas such as helium or hydrogen is inserted into the capillary tube as the carrier gas or eluant.

Each component gets separated in the capillary and it emerged at the end of the capillary tube. The detector detects the gas and chromatography is prepared on the data recorder.

I am Darron Gaston, Digital Marketing manager at Quadrex. Here i am providing information about our products like nitrogen and hydrogen generator, PID analyzers and gc capillary columns.