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Helium Carrier gas

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:00 am
by kalidassa
Helium is used as carrier gas instead of Nitrogen in GCMS any specific reason is there

Kalidass

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:40 am
by Peter Apps
Mainly you get the same separation in half the time. Also with helium as carrier you can detect air leaks from the presence of nitrogen.

Have a look in the forum archives.

Peter

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:06 am
by Ron
Nitrogen use can distort the mass spectra of some compounds. The nitrogen can be ionized, leading to gas phase charge transfer reactions and changing the mass spectrum. The ionization energy of helium is much higher, so you don't have as much ionized carrier gas in the ion source.