There is also a wealth of information on-line (for example:
http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/chemsep/gc/ )
You've probably already done this, but a Google search on "gas chromatography" will return a wealth of information.
As to specific class experiments, what you can do will depend a lot on what column(s) the instructor has available for your instrument. As you've probably already discovered, a GC is a very general instrument. It must be adapted to a specific analysis by choosing an appropriate column ("stationary phase").
Aside from that, the only real requirement is that your sample be volatile and/or thermally stable. Some possibilities:
- - the amount of CO2 in exhaled breath
- hydrocarbon distribution in lighter fluid
- alcohol in a dry martini
- antifreeze (ethylene glycol) in water
Any of these are straightforward
if you have an appropriate column.
How elaborate you want to get depends on the goals of the class:
- - do you want everyone to make an injection (sort of "show and tell")?
- do you want to work in teams and go through quantitation (injecting standards, generating a calibration plot, and then quantitating a "sample")?
- do you want to explore the chromatographic process (e.g., effect of carrier gas flow rate on peak width?)
Once you have that aspect (how elaborate) defined, come back and post again for some specific suggestions from practitioners.
