L6.13 GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
Specific Competency 2

Identify uses of GC as an analytical tool

The technician should understand the critical role that GC plays in the overall analytical program of industrial organizations and the kinds of samples that are measured using GC. They should understand the advantages of the technique with respect to analysis speed, sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy, precision, reliability, simplicity, and ability to do nondestructive analysis. They should also understand the disadvantages, such as the limitation to the measurement of volatile samples that are thermally-stable (or those than can be made volatile or thermally-stable by derivitization), and the difficulty in identifying unknown sample components (i.e., qualitative analysis) without complex detection systems such as mass spectrometry (MS) or fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).