Top 10 Gas Chromatography (GC) Services

Its high speed, high resolution, and high sensitivity make gas chromatography (GC) one of the most efficient analytical techniques.

In the GC method, the sample is carried by a chemically inert gas, usually helium or nitrogen, through a column which contains a stationary phase which separates the different components. GC is able to analyze complex mixtures of compounds within minutes with a high sensitivity in the range of nanograms to femtograms of solute per seconds depending on the detector utilized.

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GC can be used with a wide range of volatile compounds and thus have multiple applications like quality control in industry, identifying and quantifying drugs or other metabolites in human blood, saliva or other secretions, environmental toxicology, etc.

GC applications are various and rely on the detector used for the sample analysis. Different detectors exist depending on the compound you analyze and at what sensitivity. You will find the most commonly used here:

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

GC-MS is one of the most powerful analytical chromatography. The mass spectrometer can analyze multiple kinds of chemical components like inorganic gas, aromatic solvents, allergens, etc. Moreover, GC-MS units enable the determination of the component mass immediately. But, because of the high temperature during the mass spectrometer analysis (400°C), if the sample is too sensitive to high temperature, it can be degraded before any detection. Then, it will result in destroying the sample without analysis.

GC-MS analyzes are applied in multiple fields like:

• Environmental monitoring for the tracking of organic pollutants
• Academic research fields like chemistry, nanotechnology, biotechnology to characterize and identify new compounds
• In the industry for research and development and quality control
• In medicine for the diagnosis of metabolic diseases by determining compounds in urine even in low concentration.

Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID)

GC-FID is one of the most used gas chromatography. FIDs have a high sensitivity to hydrocarbons with low noise. However, since the sample goes through pyrolysis it is only applicable to flammable gas. Note that the sample will be destroyed during the process. Also, it cannot detect inorganic substances.

GC-FID is commonly applied in petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and natural gas industries.

Gas Chromatography – Thermal Conductivity Detector (GC-TCD)

GC-TCD is one of the earliest gas chromatography techniques used. The great advantage of thermal conductivity detectors is that they are universal. They can detect both organic and inorganic components, and they preserve the sample. But, compared to other detectors, they have low sensitivity and depend on the flow rate and the concentration of the sample. But its universality makes TCD a good detector for primary analyzes on an unknown sample.

It often takes time to find the CRO which corresponds to your GC needs. Here you can find a selection of services which can be useful for you.