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LCGC Article: It's All About Selectivity

Submitted by anthias on Wed, 01/02/2012 - 01:36

What have you always wanted to know about Selectivity?
 
This month's issue of LCGC Magazine brings a thorough article on this topic written by Diane Turner, Director of Anthias Consulting Ltd, and Ronald E. Majors: "It's All About Selectivity". Check out the excerpt below as well as the full article.

In gas chromatography selectivity is commonly thought to be about exclusivity of the column stationary phases and sometimes extended to the detector. This instalment of "Column Watch" explains how to incorporate selectivity throughout the sample analysis cycle, from the sampling analysis cycle through data analysis and report generation.

Read the full article.

Agilent Technologies Courses for 2012

Submitted by anthias on Wed, 21/12/2011 - 01:01

New for 2012, Agilent Technologies is introducing courses held at the Open University in Milton Keynes. These very affordable courses will help you focus on your company's training needs in the coming year. Have a look below to see short outlines and course details or request more information. 
 

 
H5926A GC Operator (30 Jan - 1 Feb 2012; 30 July - 1 Aug 2012), £595
This three-day course is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of GC and the operation of the Agilent 6890 and 7890 Gas Chromatographs using capillary columns and GC Chemstation software. It combines a mixture of classroom based presentations with hands-on software and hardware lab exercises, to give you comprehensive training. This course includes an introduction to gas chromatography;  Chemstation configuration; an introduction to Chemstation; data acquisition; data analysis; inlets; columns; detectors; calibration; sequences and reporting.
 
H2290A GC Troubleshooting & Maintenance (2-3 Feb 2012; 2-3 Aug), £495
This two-day course is designed for those who have responsibility for the preventative maintenance of the Agilent 6890 and 7890 Gas Chromatographs. It combines a mixture of classroom based presentations with hands-on hardware and software lab exercises, to give you comprehensive training. This course includes an introduction to troubleshooting and maintenance; 7890 familiarisation; inlet, autosampler, column, detector, electronics and data system troubleshooting and maintenance.
 
H4043A GC-MS Operator (26-28 March 2012; 8-10 Oct 2012), £595
This three-day course is designed to complement the installation of the Agilent GC-MS, providing training on the operation of the Agilent 5973 and 5975 Mass Spectrometers and MSD Chemstation software.  It combines a mixture of classroom based presentations with hands-on software and hardware lab exercises, to give you comprehensive training. This course includes MS Basics and hardware configuration; MS tuning; data acquisition; qualitative & quantitative data analysis; custom reports & databases; sequencing; and an introduction to retention time locking, RPN commands and macros.
 
H2294A GC-MS Troubleshooting & Maintenance (29-30 March 2012; 11-12 Oct 2012), £495
The objective of this two-day course is to train the operator to perform the maintenance required to ensure the smooth running of the Agilent 6890-5973 and 7890-5975 GC-MS instruments.  The course also discusses the principles of troubleshooting by examining the effects of faults in the system on the chromatographic output. It combines a mixture of classroom based presentations with hands-on hardware and software lab exercises, to give you comprehensive training. This course includes an introduction to troubleshooting and maintenance; tunes & diagnostics; GC considerations; MSD vacuum system; ion source; quadrupole mass filter; detector; and a final "bug" exam.
 
R1717A Deconvolution Reporting Software (24-25 May 2012; 6-7 Dec 2012), £650
This data analysis course will cover the fundamentals of the Deconvolution Reporting Software, G1716AA. DRS is an add-on application package to the Agilent GC-MSD Chemstation. Students will learn to use DRS interactively from Data Analysis and to optimize settings. Other topics covered include software installation; automation (sequence); compound addition to existing databases; AMDIS deconvolution and NIST Search. It combines a mixture of classroom based presentations with hands-on software lab exercises using laptop computers, to give you comprehensive training.
 
H4063A Mass Spectral Interpretation (21-23 May 2012; 3-5 Dec 2012), £795
This three-day course is designed to present the fundamental concepts necessary to obtain high-quality data in SCAN mode from a GC/MS System for spectral interpretation purposes. The most commonly employed tools used in identifying compounds based on their mass spectra are introduced, the physical reasons for their efficiency explained, and their use reinforced through problem solving. The most common decomposition mechanisms responsible for fragment ions will also be introduced. This course is classroom based and combines a mixture of presentations to introduce the concepts with a high proportion of lab exercises to reinforce the knowledge.
 
For full course outlines for any of these courses, please email courses@anthias.co.uk.
 
Courses will be held at the Agilent Training Facility, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK and will have a group size of maximum 8 delegates. 

Industry writeup: Chromatography events this autumn

Submitted by anthias on Tue, 20/12/2011 - 08:15

This autumn, we've been lucky in the gas chromatography world to have had two high quality events take place within the UK.

Firstly, the Separation Science conference on New Horizons in Separation and Detection Techniques 2011 took place over the course of two days at the beginning of October at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. I was privileged to be asked to present at this amazing venue, in the footsteps of our great scientists. The conference was well balanced in the different separation techniques, with a good proportion of the presentations on gas chromatography with well known speakers, unlike many events which tend to have a very high proportion on liquid chromatography. The whole event was excellent for the cross-pollination of ideas between different industries as well as different techniques, we hope this conference will become a regular entry in our diaries!

The annual joint Chromsoc and RSC Analytical North West Division meeting on Advances in GC Technology took place in Runcorn in early November.  The success of this meeting was apparent many weeks before the event took place, as it was fully booked with both delegates and vendors, with a waiting list! Who said that gas chromatography is dead? Focusing on gas chromatography and related techniques, with well known speakers travelling from across Europe it was a very enjoyable day. Again, I was privileged to be asked to present on some work I've been doing on GCxGC with a flow modulator coupled to a standard benchtop quadrupole MS. This is definitely an event that needs to take place on a more regular basis!