Gas Chromatography: The Analytical Tool at the Heart of Green Chemistry

Gas chromatography has been a staple analytical tool in the environmental and sustainability movements, and now green chemistry for over fifty years. We trace these roots to Lovelock’s invention of the electron capture detector and his later work Gaia, to using GC-ECD in critical early work on sustainability such as discovery of the ozone hole. Sorptive microextraction techniques, including SPME, in concert with GC can nearly eliminate hazardous solvents in sample preparation, making GC methods nearly solvent free. With the rise of green chemistry in the 21st century, we see GC still at the center of sustainability in chemistry. Using examples from pharmaceutical analysis, we will discuss systems thinking along with the RGB and AMGIS methodologies, for the analysis of green gas chromatographic methods. When the full method life cycle is considered, analysis of gas chromatographic methods for their “greenness” can be complex.