مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد مراحل اولیه در تاریخ کروماتوگرافی گاز – الزویر ۲۰۱۸

The creation of gas chromatography is traditionally associated with the names of Nobel Prize winner Archer Martin and his colleagues Richard Synge and Anthony James. However, sometimes references to their predecessors can be found. An investigation conducted by the authors of this article not only confirmed the reliability of these references; but in fact led to the conclusion that by 1952, which is commonly believed to be the year when gas chromatography was born, many research papers had already been devoted to this method, mainly, in its gas-solid version. These papers are considered in this article.

Early works

The first known use of gas chromatography was perhaps a work by Hieronymus Brunschwig, found by A. Bittel [5]. It dates back more than 500 years ago (1512). Brunschwig described a technique for purifying alcohol by passing a mixture of alcohol and water through a metal column filled with a cotton or sponge, prewetted with olive oil. With this technique, Brunschwig managed to obtain a certain amount of pure alcohol. The sponge served in this case as the stationary carrier, while olive oil was the liquid stationary phase. Alcoholic fumes acted as the mobile phase (the same role is often performed by one of the components of a mixture in frontal analysis). It is of interest that in 1962, E. Bayer and F. Born experimentally confirmed the veracity of Brunschwig’s results. It is useful to note that, in fact, it was the gas-liquid version. Since the nature of separation in a number of chromatography versions is related to the phenomenon of adsorption, we need to make a digression about the history of studying this phenomenon and techniques based on it. At the end of the 18th century, Tobias Lowitz [6] discovered absorption of substances by charcoal. This was not the first observation of the kind, but Lowitz was the one who introduced it into science. Here is how Senchenkova [7] described this discovery. “Working at a pharmacy, Lowitz lacked reliable techniques for purifying substances from impurities. On June 5th, 1785, he accidentally came to the development of a technique based on adsorption. While evaporating a solution of tartaric acid to produce brown crystals of it, Lowitz allowed its partial carbonization due to an oversight. After stirring a coal-like sediment and allowing it to settle for another eight days, Lowitz obtained a clear solution with colorless crystals, which he had not been able to obtain by any means before. Then Lowitz started to study the phenomenon that he discovered. He used charcoal to purify medicines, drinking water, vodka, honey and other sweeteners, saltpeter,, as well as to absorb various volatile substances such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, onion and garlic odors (i.e., phytoncides). The practical impact was rather large: the author’s name became widely known abroad..