Historical Development of GC The First Chromatographic Instrumentation

The general concept of GC was put forward in a Nobel Prize-winning paper by Martin and Synge in 1941 and implemented by James and Martin in 1952 under the name vapor phase chromatography. The reasons for GC being the initial realization of modem instrumental chromatographic techniques lie in the relative ease of achieving several of the key components  

Because diffusion is so much more rapid and viscosity so much lower in gases than in liquids, mass transfer equilibrium between stationary and mobile phases in GC was easily achieved while using large-dimension packing particles, in the range of 100-1000 pm (i.e., 1 mm). It was not necessary to use complex pumps to achieve suitable pressures, as was required for the later reahzation of instrumental liquid chromatography (LC), which is performed in packed beds of much smaller particles (1-10 pm). 

One parameter for controlling partition between the phases, namely, temperature, was easily varied and maintained by readily available thermostated oven technology. 

A simple, universal detector, the katharometer, or thermal conductivity detector (TCD), applicable to chromatography with analytes eluting in gas phase, was available to provide an electrical signal that could be displayed as a chromatogram. 

---