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are carried out using a mobile and a stationary phase, the primary classification of chromatography is based on the physical nature of the mobile phase. The mobile phase can be a gas or a liquid which gives rise to the two basic forms of chromatography, namely, gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC). The stationary phase can also take two forms, solid and liquid, which provides two subgroups of GC and LC, namely; gas�solid chromatography (GSC) and gas�liquid chromatography (GLC), together with liquid solid chromatography (LSC) and liquid chromatography (LLC). The different forms of chromatography are summarized in Table 1. Most thin layer chromatography techniques are considered liquid-solid systems although the solute normally interacts with a liquid-like surface coating on the adsorbent or support or, in some cases an actual liquid coating. Table 1 The Classification of Chromatography chromatography systems

Preparative Gas Chromatography Gas chromatography has not been used extensively for preparative work although its counterpart, liquid chromatography, has been broadly used in the pharmaceutical industry for the isolation and purification of physiologically active substances. There are a number of unique problems associated with preparative gas chromatography. Firstly, it is difficult to recycle the mobile phase and thus large volume of gas are necessary. Secondly, the sample must be fully vaporized onto the column to ensure radial distribution of the sample across the column. Thirdly, the materials of interest are eluted largely in a very dilute form from the column and therefore must be extracted or condensed from the gas stream which is also difficult to achieve efficiently. Finally, the efficient packing of large GC columns

components and simultaneously provide an quantitative estimate of each constituent. Samples may be gaseous, liquid or solid in nature and can range in complexity from a simple blend of two entantiomers to a multi component mixture containing widely differing chemical species. Furthermore, the analysis can be carried out, at one extreme, on a very costly and complex instrument, and at the other, on a simple, inexpensive thin layer plate. The first scientist to recognize chromatography as an efficient method of separation was the Russian botanist Tswett (1), who used a simple form of liquid-solid chromatography to separate a number of plant pigments. The colored bands he produced on the adsorbent bed evoked the term chromatography for this type of separation (color writing). Although color has little to do with modern chromatography, the name has persisted and, despite its irrelevance, is still used for all separation techniques that employs the

will be distributed in the stationary phase under equilibrium conditions. (K) is a dimensionless constant and, in gas/liquid and liquid/liquid systems, (Xs) and (Xm) can be measured as mass of solute per unit volume of phase. In gas/solid and liquid/solid systems, (Xs) and (Xm) can be measured as mass of solute per unit mass of phase. Equation (1) reiterates the general distribution law and presumes the adsorption isotherm as linear. In both gas/solid chromatography (GSC) and liquid/solid chromatography (LSC), virtually all the solutes exhibit Langmuir type isotherms between the two phases which, over a wide concentration range, is certainly not linear. However, at the extremely low solute concentrations employed in chromatography, (i.e., that portion of the isotherm that is pertinent) the isotherm can be considered as linear

the work of Tswett, impeded the recognition of chromatography as a useful separation technique for nearly 20 years. In the late 1930s and early 1940s Martin and Synge introduced a form of liquid-liquid chromatography by supporting the stationary phase, in this case water, on silica gel in the form of a packed bed and used it to separate some acetyl amino acids. They published their work in 1941 (3) and in their paper recommended the replacement of the liquid mobile phase with a suitable gas which would accelerate the transfer between the two phases and provide more efficient separations. Thus, the concept of gas chromatography was born. In the same paper in 1941, Martin and Synge suggested the use of small particles and high pressures in LC to improve the separation which proved to the critical factors that initiated the development of high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). "Thus, the smallest H.E.T.P. (the highest efficiency) should be obtainable by using

, employinggas solid chromatography is shown in figure 14. The stationary phase was activated alumina [treated with Fe(OH)2], and the column was 3 m long and 4 mm I.D. The carrier gas was neon, the flow rate 200 ml/min (at atmospheric pressure) and the column temperature was -196oC.   The Simple Gas Density Balance The original gas density balance has already been described. It was complicated, difficult to fabricate and its manufacture was notacommercialsuccess. Intheearlydays of chromatography GOW-MAC developed some elegantly designed filaments for use in the construction of katharometers, which, in due course, were used in many other manufacturer's katharometer products. These sensing filaments were rugged and highly reliable and were used by GOW�MAC to emulate Martin's density balance in a simple form. A diagram of the GOW-MAC gas density balance is shown in figure 15. The sensor consists of a pneumatic bridge of tubes containing three vertical tubes all connected by