Practice of Kinetics (Comprehensive Chemical Kinetics, Volume 1)

4 ANALYSIS 794.3 GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY4.3.1 IntroductionThe advent of gas chr~matography~~~,~~~has given a tremendous stimulus tothe-study of kinetics, particularly of gas-phase reactions, since it allows precisionproduct analysis to be achieved and the purification and analysis of the startingmaterials to be made. The theory and application of the techniques involved havebeen dealt with in detail in several booksz7'. The most recent of these is by Giddings;this consists of three volumes of which the first deals with the theoryZ7l.Apart from these, two series are devoted to the advances in gas chromat~graphy~~~and chromatographyz7 '. We shall be concerned here with Gas Liquid Chromatography(GLC) and Gas Solid Chromatography (GSC). A schematic diagram of atypical set-up is shown in Fig. 51.UFig. 51. Schematic diagram of a flow system for gas chromatography. From Perkin Elmer Inc.4.3.2 Carrier gasesCarrier gases are usually hydrogen, helium or nitrogen which are dried by passingthrough a molecular sieve column. This is regenerated periodically with a positiveflow of gas and heating to 200 "C.4.3.3 ColumnsColumns are made from glass, copper or stainless steel and are generally U-shaped or coiled. The development of capillary columns has been described byReferences pp. 104-11 I