[Analysis of hydrocarbon impurities in high purity isobutene by gas chromatography]

Gas chromatography (GC) is a technique for separating and analyzing volatile compounds in a sample. Its primary purpose is to identify and quantify components in complex mixtures, making it essential in fields such as environmental analysis, pharmaceuticals, and petrochemicals. GC is also called vapor-phase chromatography (VPC) or gas-liquid partition chromatography (GLPC).
In GC,  a sample is vaporized and mixed with an inert carrier gas (the mobile phase), which transports it through a column.

Unlike ethane and propane that have only two major conformations, butane has more than two conformers. The staggered form of butane in which the bulky methyl groups on the two carbons are placed on opposite sides, that is, at a dihedral angle of 180°, is the lowest energy, most stable form — called the anti conformer. This conformation is stabilized due to the absence of steric repulsion between the largely spaced out methyl groups. The other two staggered conformations are degenerate and have...

This lesson delves into the mass spectrometry of branched alkane fragmentation. Branched alkanes possess secondary or tertiary carbon atoms, which generate relatively stable carbocations if the cleavage occurs at the branching point. The high stability of carbocations drives the instant fragmentation of branched alkanes. Accordingly, the branched alkane's molecular ion peak is very weak or invisible in the mass spectra, especially in comparison to a linear alkane.

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) is the combination of analytical techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry in a single instrument for analyzing a mixture of compounds. The gas chromatograph separates the compounds in the mixture, and the mass spectrometer analyzes each compound separately to determine the molecular masses and molecular structures.
A gas chromatograph consists of a long, narrow capillary column with a polysiloxane coating on the inner wall. The coating...

The molecular ion peak of a molecule in the mass spectrum provides vital information for molecular identification. However, conventional electron impact ionization can lead to the rapid dissociation of some molecular ions before they reach the detector. A milder ionization method is required to increase the lifetime of such ionized analyte molecules. Chemical ionization (CI) is a gas-phase protonation reaction useful for mass-analyzing analyte molecules that are easily protonated to yield the...

Organic compounds of the same molecular formula can have different structural formulas called constitutional isomers, and the phenomenon is known as constitutional isomerism. Alkanes with four or more carbons showing multiple structures with the same molecular formula thereby exhibit constitutional isomerism.
The linear isomer of an alkane is prefixed by the term “n”; hence a linear isomer of pentane is known as n-pentane. Based on the type of branching, some of the branched isomers are given...