Purpose of gas chromatography?


  • To separate the different volatile or semi-volatile chemical compounds in a mixture.
  • To identify or quantify the volatile components of a sample to be chemically characterized.

A gas CHROMATOGRAPH is composed of three parts

  • The injector: its role is to introduce into the system the analytes in gaseous form.
  • The separation column: placed in a temperature-regulated oven, the analytes are separated according to their volatility and affinity for the stationary phase.
  • The detector: delivers a signal proportional to the amount of analyte or spectral information allowing for its identification.
Simplified diagram of a Gas Chromatograph: on the left a cylinder representing the injector, on the right a yellow cube representing the detector, the two are connected by a cylinder representing the separating column. The detector emits an electric signal.
Transcript : French English
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