Steam as a carrier gas in capillary chromatography

The use of water as a carrier gas in capillary gas chromatography has been considered. Steam and helium have been compared as a mobile phase for separation of alkanes (using the example of chromatograms of diesel fuel) and polyaromatic compounds (SE-30 and HP-5 capillary columns). Steam has been shown to have an advantage. The peak resolution values calculated for the pair of C18/iso-C20 compounds are 4.4 for steam and 3.9 for helium. The Van Deemter relations have been measured and it has been shown that a significantly lower viscosity of steam compared to helium allows for analysis of substances in a wide range of linear velocities with good selectivity. Steam has been shown to hold promise for chromatographic determination of hydrocarbons.