ABSTRACT
Gas chromatography is probably the most popular analytical technique available today and appears to be the technique of choice whenever and wherever it is appropriate and practical. There are a number of reasons for this. First, as a result of the high sensitivity of GC detectors, the technique can easily measure components in a mixture well below the nanogram level and is thus extremely important in environmental analyses. Second, GC columns can have exceedingly high efficiencies and thus resolve very complex mixtures or, alternatively, closely eluting solutes such as enantiomeric pairs. Third, the apparatus is relatively straightforward to operate, rugged and reliable and can provide results that are accurate and precise. The technique can, however, only be used for the separation of substances that are volatile (i.e. have a significant vapor pressure at the temperature of elution) and although derivatization can be used to increase the volatility of many compounds, the technique is naturally excluded from a large number of applications encompassing the analysis of involatile compounds.
