Chromatography Forum

I'm a field/lab tech, and was assigned to assist one of the researchers with running gas samples in our GC (a SRI 8610C). My background is not in chemistry (its mainly geology, though I've had general chem) so I've never used a GC til I started my job here. I was given basic training on how to inject samples (just gas samples, no liquid samples) & record the results. Any snafu's were handled by the researcher. However he has since left, and now I'm responsible for running samples and equipment maintenance myself. I've managed so far, but would like to learn more, as I have some questions about things (is a peak 'real' or a gc issue, methodology, equipment choices, etc).

What would 'you' recommend as far as training/courses/books?

There is a company that does training (1-2 days) aimed at training someone to run/manage the gc that we use - however I wonder if it'd be too specific/narrow focus? (e.g. If we end up with a different gc a few yrs down the road - how applicable would that training be?)

Would a general GC training course be better? Such as one of the ones offered by ACS? Would you recommend the general course, or the HPLC one? (I'll admit I dont' even really understand the difference much between the two, other than HPLC involves liquid, lol)

And I'd love some introductory book recommendations! Two that I've found on Amazon are Modern Practice of Gas Chromatography (by Grob) and Basic Gas Chromatography (by McNair) - seemed to have good reviews?

More or less I feel overwhelmed with trying to learn this and just don't know where to start, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

More or less I feel overwhelmed with trying to learn this and just don't know where to start, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

The coverage of the introductory level of of Chromatography as a subject is graduate level Chemistry course work.

For a two or three day class, The ACS class is a good one. I took that a number of years ago. The vendors of GC supplies offer classes. Tese are good also.

Even a basic GC class by a vendor can be good. Look for one that discusses theory. Vendors have classes that focus on the care and feeding of their instruments - and such a class would not be a bad idea. Some may also discuss chromatographic theory as well. Check out the web sites and see what they offer.

If you do GC, you want a GC class. While chromatography is chromatography, there are instrumentation and technique differences that make LC and GC different.

Well, I don't feel so bad now that I know this is graduate level chem stuff I'm trying to learn, lol

I'll check with one of the places I had contacted previously that can come do the training for our GC, and see if they can include a basic GC review as well. Or I may see if its possible to get both general training through a course, as well as the specific training for our GC. Just depends what our budget will allow for

Thanks for your suggestions