Essential Components of a Preparative GC System

ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF A PREPARATIVE GC SYSTEM. The most important components for the system are (a) the sample inlet system, (b) the column, and (c) the collection system. 

It is just as important in preparative GC as in analytical GC to introduce the sample as a plug to maintain the resolution. 

We now will focus our attention on the various component parts of a preparative GC column the column tube, the solid support, the liquid substrate, the carrier gas, and column length and diameter. 

In preparative GC it is particularly important that solvent efficiency (a) should be maximized as in analytical GC. A liquid substrate should be used that will give the maximum separation of peaks (high selectivity). The higher the a term the fewer theoretical plates (n) required and the larger samples that can be injected. 

Bayer et al. (36) studied the efficiency of preparative columns and showed that, when using the van Deemter equation (Section 2.2.2), an additional term had to be introduced to account for the nonuniform flow distribution. This can be represented by 

---