Characteristic thermal constant and dimensionless heating rate. The links to optimum heating rate in GC

An initial step in the quest of deriving a generalized approach to optimization of a temperature program in gas chromatography is presented. Central to this is the introduction of a dimensionless heating rate, r. As a first step to defining r, a characteristic thermal constant, thetachar, defined as thetachar = -dT/dk at k = 1, where T and k are, respectively, column temperature and solute retention factor, is introduced and evaluated for our own experimental data and for thermodynamic data from the literature. It was determined that, for silicone stationary phases with a phase ratio of 250, thetachar ranged from about 23 degrees C for low molecular weight hydrocarbons such as dimethylpropane to about 45 degrees C for high molecular weight pesticides such as mirex. It was also found that, for a particular solute and a stationary phase type, a 2 orders of magnitude increase in the film thickness caused only about a 2-fold increase in the characteristic thermal constant. Using thetachar as a fundamental temperature unit in GC and void time as a fundamental time unit, a dimensionless heating rate is introduced and its potential utility for the evaluation of the separation-speed tradeoffs in a temperature-programmed GC is demonstrated.