GC Capillary Columns

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GC Capillary Columns

GC capillary columns are long tubes of glass or quartz coated internally with stationary phases. They provide for high efficiency GC separations.

Gas chromatography capillary columns, so named due to their small internal diameters, are used in gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to separate analytes. They are available in long tubes (5 to 200m in length) made of metal, glass or quartz with internal diameters ranging from 50 to 500 um. The stationary phase is coated on the inside of the tube at thicknesses on the order of 0.25um. An external coating of a polyimide resin is used on glass and quartz columns to provide mechanical strength. Capillary columns differ from packed columns in that there is far less impedance to flow allowing the use of very long columns for high efficiency separations or relatively short columns for very fast separations.