alternate use for MS5A
Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:47 pm
The typical use for MS5A PLOT column is for permanent gas analysis, however my company has found it to be quite useful for some other separations. It elutes isobutane, neopentane, and isobutylene before oxygen and nitrogen. This has been quite useful for the rapid analysis of n-butane, as the major impurities of our feed stock are isobutane and neopentane. Of course, following the elution of these two impurities is a temperature program that goes to 180C to get everything else off the column, but it is a much faster method than separating isobutane from n-butane on an alumina PLOT column.
Perhaps I've made some of you cringe at the thought of analyzing a hydrocarbon other than methane on a MS5A, but I'm curious if anyone else has tried this with any succes. Our analyses are quite reproducible and the baseline remains clean after days of repeated analysis.
For those of you who work for the major column manufacturers, what do you think of this? Have you heard of any other abstract uses for MS5A?
Perhaps I've made some of you cringe at the thought of analyzing a hydrocarbon other than methane on a MS5A, but I'm curious if anyone else has tried this with any succes. Our analyses are quite reproducible and the baseline remains clean after days of repeated analysis.
For those of you who work for the major column manufacturers, what do you think of this? Have you heard of any other abstract uses for MS5A?