ARS | Publication request: Review of modern practice of gas chromatography

Submitted to: Inside Laboratory Management
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: November 9, 2004
Publication Date: January 5, 2005
Citation: Lehotay, S.J. 2005. Review of modern practice of gas chromatography. 4TH Edition of Inside Laboratory Management. Jan/Feb. p.17-18.

Technical Abstract: A classic book in analytical chemistry, Modern Practice of Gas Chromatography (GC), has been updated. The book is helpful for both the novice and practiced hand. The practical nature of the book makes it very useful to the everyday chromatographer. Eugene Barry's chapter on column selection in particular was just the right combination of theory and practice. Also, the new chapter in the 4th edition on gas management systems by Reginald Bartram can be a real help for laboratories large and small when setting up their GC instruments (or rethinking how they are set up now). The mention of state-of-the-art techniques in some of the chapters, such as high-speed GC by Richard Sacks, inlet systems by Nicholas Snow, and GC/MS by John Masucci and Gary Caldwell were also very good. The chapter on detectors by Luis Colon and Lisa Baird was a good review of older and newer detection devices for GC. The next important transition in GC will be comprehensive GC (GCxGC), and just as the first and second editions gave short shrift to nascent developments in capillary columns and GC/MS, the fourth edition barely mentions GCxGC. This book will need updating again in a few years, and the editors lacked vision not to replace some of the especially old material and/or shorten certain application chapters to make room for a chapter on developments in comprehensive GC.