Quantitative Hands-on Gas Chromatography Undergraduate Analytical Laboratory Exercise

Hands-on experience with analytical chemistry instrumentation is something many undergraduate students do not have an opportunity to experience, mainly due to the cost and delicate nature of the instrumentation. In this experiment, students are exposed to a realistic situation involving the entire gas chromatography process, from sample preparation through data analysis, along with the opportunity to gain individual hands-on experience with a low cost compact GC system. Additionally, the students perform chemical modification of the analyte prior to GC analysis, explore the differences between internal and external standardization, and complete a full analysis of the analytical data to include the generation of calibration curves and error estimation