Chromatography Forum

Dear All,
I have a Varian GC with a TCD detector and a Havesep Q column. It works well and was being used so far for analysis of alcohol-water mixtures. The maximum temperature of the column is 275 deg C. Helium is being used as the carrier gas. Can somebody suggest well known organic compounds of pharmaceutical interest and that are readily available from sources such as Aldrich and can be analyzed using this set up.
Pardon my ignorance in this subject.

Thanks very much.

I think Hayes Separations are now part of Valco Instruments. They will have a table of retention times for compounds at their site.

Given that Hayesep Q is for small molecules, you will be looking at small, volatile organic molecules, eg ethylene oxide, vinyl chloride, that are of more interest for occupational exposure, rather than pharmaceutical compounds.

The Valco site should also have examples as well as contact information.
http://www.vici.com/profiles/prof_hay.php

Bruce Hamilton

The Q porous polymer has a history of use for residual solvent analysis.

Most folks today will use capillary columns and headspace, static or dynamic, for such analyses.

How many times in the last century did I run, methanol, ethanol, acetone, and n-propanol, as well as, methyl ethyl ketone, ethyl acetate, benzene, chloroform, dioxane, methylene chloride, to measure their content in pharmaceutical matrices?

Today Q is mostly used in gas analysis, especially for TOGA and BTU analyses, as well as ethylene and propylene processing plants.

best wishes,

Rod

I'm not certain that the original poster's system, with TCD, would cope well with low concentrations of organics. I agree that the best use may be for petrochemical, gas industry, or perhaps fermentation monitoring.

I think the original poster may need to extend their range of columns, provided they are in a position to reconfigure their GC.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton