Evaluation and performance comparison of bare powdered graphite and coated columns for gas chromatographic separation of halocarbons and halobenzenes

Powdered graphite has been explored as column material for. adsorption gas chromatography (GC). Surface of graphite has been coated. with polyethylene, glycol (PEG-6000) for improved separation of halobenzenes. The qualitative performance comparison of bare and coated graphite columns has been carried out with commercial packed and capillary. columns regarding various chromatographic kinetic parameters. The reported graphite column can-effectively separate three commonly known halocarbons and halobenzenes. Coating of graphite has increased the sensitivity of the halobenzenes due to improvement in peaks symmetry. The RSD values of measured number of theoretical plates for 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene for bare and coated graphite and on commercial PEG-20M are 2.5, 1.4 and 1.3, respectively.