Yesteray Dr. Hotz explained how the Gas Chromatograph worked and I’d like to share the specifics of the essential piece of equipment I worked with here.
Looking at the key, there are a multitude of essential parts to this machine. Distilled into a user’s guide, the two coils in the center (inside the oven) are constantly carrying gas through the machine and out the back. When the measurement is engaged, the sampler (1), which feeds the coils, switches off and prevents any more gas to enter. This gas is then heated. The coil is coated with an absorptive substance that the gasses stick to. As the gas mixture is heated and the particles separate, different gasses detatch from the coating at different times (once they have reached the heat necessary unique to the molecule). By measuring the time at which the gas molecules detatch in the detector (4), we can tell which gasses are in our final composition i.e. what reaction took place, how much reacted, and what the yield in terms of energy will be.