Gas Chromatography in Screening of Chemicals Related to the Chemical Weapons Convention

Various gas chromatographic methods, which are useful for the screening of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)-related chemicals, are described in this section. Choice of columns, detectors, and injection techniques, crucial to the optimization of gas chromatography (GC) as a routine screening tool, are discussed. Also, various identification methods are described. The use of the retention indices (RIs) method allowing identification without the need for an authentic chemical is described in detail. RIs are used as an identification method together with electron ionization mass spectrometry (EIMS) in the on-site analysis method established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).