RestekCapillaryColumn InstallationGuide
Section II: In-depth Installation Information
The following section provides in-depth information on instrument preparation
procedures for installing and operating fused silica and stainless steel capillary columns.
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I. Instrument Preparation
Gas Purification
Make sure the carrier gas is clean. The carrier gas MUST contain less than 1ppm of
oxygen, moisture, or any other trace contaminants to prevent column degradation,
decreased column lifetime, and increased stationary phase bleed. Contaminants such as
trace hydrocarbons cause ghost peaks to appear during temperature programming and
compromise the validity of analytical data. Make-up gas should also be contaminant-
free or baseline fluctuations and excessive detector noise can occur. Detector gases,
such as hydrogen and compressed air, should be free of water and hydrocarbons or
excessive baseline noise can result.
We highly recommend installing a High Capacity IndicatingOxygen Trap on both the
carrier andmake-up gas lines. Becausemoisture reacts withmost oxygen traps, we
suggest installing aMoisture Trap in front of the oxygen trap. (
Install purifiers as closely
as possible to the GC's bulkhead fitting, not system-wide. If purifiers are installed
system-wide, a leaky fitting downstream of the trap could allow oxygen andmoisture to
RestekCapillaryColumn InstallationGuide, Section II
