BRAINCAKERetention Times and Peak Areas
A gas chromatogram gives two kinds of information.
Retention time is the time from injecting the sample to the component reaching the detector. Under the same conditions (same column, temperature and carrier gas flow rate), a compound always has the same retention time, so it can be identified by comparing it with known retention times.
Peak area is proportional to the amount of that component. Comparing peak areas gives the proportions of the components in the mixture:
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All 10 lessons in Chromatography and Qualitative Analysis · All OCR A-level Organic Chemistry topics