Chromatography Forum

I have read that Hydrogen is safe to use in Headspace autosamplers. But a co-worker brought up to me an Agilent note/document that indicates not to use Hydrogen on the Headspace A/S. So we are butting heads. It seems like co-worker is willing to settle for Nitrogen but I have not seen literature about Nitrogen being used in headspace. If any of you have any experience or knowledge on the subject please comment. We are trying to meet half-way.

According to Agilent, the gas used for the headspace sampler should be the same as the GC carrier gas. The Agilent 7697A can use hydrogen with a recommended purity of 99.9995% purity. I guess it just depends on what headspace sampler you have. When in doubt, nitrogen is also very cheap and does not pose a fire hazard. For me personally, I would just go with nitrogen and use brass gas lines.

https://www.agilent.com/cs/library/site ... _Guide.pdf

It also states to never use flammable gases for vial pressurization. So just go with Nitrogen.

Pacerlaser,

thx for your comments. I think we are going to try Nitrogen.

Yeah the danger is related to vial pressurization, you don't want the hydrogen going into the vial oven. Nitrogen is a better choice.

I've used both Helium and Nitrogen as carrier for Headspace but would never use Hydrogen.