GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY OF TITANS ATMOSPHERE .4. ANALYSIS OF PERMANENT GASES IN THE PRESENCE OF HYDROCARBONS AND NITRILES WITH A MOLSIEVE PLOT CAPILLARY COLUMN

A Molsieve 5A wide-bore capillary column was systematically studied for the separation of CO and N2 in the presence of other permanent gases, including noble gases, light hydrocarbons and nitriles, which are all plausible constituents of Titan's atmosphere. This column has a chromatographic behaviour similar to that of a molecular sieve 5A packed column. The efficiency of the column, the detection limit of CO in N2 and the effect of the presence of nitriles in the injected samples on the chromatographic performance of the column were characterized by determining Van Deemter curves for CO, N2 and noble gases at different temperatures. This column offers a rapid separation of the selected solutes under isothermal conditions, with about 1000 theoretical plates/m at 60-degrees-C for most of the solutes.