Elemental analysis using gas chromatography

Quantitative analysis using the internal standard method. The height and area of chromatographic peaks are affected not only by the amount of sample but also by fluctuations of the carrier gas flow rate, the column and detector temperatures, etc., i.e. by variations of those factors which influence the sensitivity and response of the detector. The effect of such variations can be eliminated by use of the internal standard method in which a known amount of a reference substance is added to the sample to be analysed before injection into the column. The requirements for an effective internal standard (Section 4.5) may be summarised as follows  

The procedure comprises the addition of a constant amount of internal standard to a fixed volume of several synthetic mixtures which contain varying known amounts of the component to be determined. The resulting mixtures are chromatographed and a calibration curve is constructed of the percentage of component in the mixtures against the ratio of component peak area/standard peak area. The analysis of the unknown mixture is carried out by addition of the same amount of internal standard to the specified volume of the mixture from the observed ratio of peak areas the solute concentration is read off using the calibration curve. 

Provided a suitable internal standard is available, this is probably the most reliable method for quantitative GLC. For example, the concentration of ethanol in blood samples has been determined using propan-2-ol as the internal standard. 

Standard addition. The sample is chromatographed before and after the addition of an accurately known amount of the pure component to be determined, and its weight in the sample is then derived from the ratio of its peak areas in the two chromatograms. Standard addition is particularly useful in the analysis of complex mixtures where it may be difficult to find an internal standard which meets the necessary requirements. 

An important application of gas chromatography is its use for determination of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur in organic and organometallic samples. A brief account of the procedure used is given here, 

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