varian 3700 gas chromatograph

I happen to have one to set up and wanted to see if anyone here in the community has dealt with one before. I don't even think the regulators for the 7 gas tanks came with it, it's sitting down town I have to get a better look but was wondering since I see all sorts of educated types here, if anybody has any tricks for hunting software and documentation, perhaps even a service manual, all I can find is this stupid 12 page pamplet operating instructions (they sure are inadequate).

Someone suggested making a post in this forum, it might give me the oppotunity to get the odd test of local stuff (when calibrating) which may reveal some tell-tale signatures of radioactive contamination (even if it does not directly see it, I don't actually know if it's possible to tell unless seeing a by-product of a difference between certain isotopes and the way that they react and form molecules. Anybody know if this can see the difference between regular iodine and radioactive iodine (for example?)? Or are there only certain sensor column typs that can do this? (or could it be retrofitted to do this?).

I see enough intelligent posts that I'm definitely curious to see what sort of replies I can get here.

Originally posted by TheLastStand
I happen to have one to set up and wanted to see if anyone here in the community has dealt with one before. I don't even think the regulators for the 7 gas tanks came with it, it's sitting down town I have to get a better look but was wondering since I see all sorts of educated types here, if anybody has any tricks for hunting software and documentation, perhaps even a service manual, all I can find is this stupid 12 page pamplet operating instructions (they sure are inadequate).

Someone suggested making a post in this forum, it might give me the oppotunity to get the odd test of local stuff (when calibrating) which may reveal some tell-tale signatures of radioactive contamination (even if it does not directly see it, I don't actually know if it's possible to tell unless seeing a by-product of a difference between certain isotopes and the way that they react and form molecules. Anybody know if this can see the difference between regular iodine and radioactive iodine (for example?)? Or are there only certain sensor column typs that can do this? (or could it be retrofitted to do this?).

I see enough intelligent posts that I'm definitely curious to see what sort of replies I can get here.

It sounds as if you are not experienced with analytical instrumentation and will not find it simple to set up or use. What data collection device will you be using to record the data? If it just a 3700, it will not do what you want it to do in any sort of standard configuration, anyway.
In what form is the material that you are trying to separate? If volatile, you can separate them and an EC detector will tell you which have halogens in them, but it can't really tell you if they are radioactive.
You would need some sort of a counter to see any radioisotopes that you managed to separate. A mass spectrometer would provide isotope data, but would require a serious lab to capture and prepare samples.

reply to post by pteridine


Yeah I thought so, the window for this particular model seems a little too narrow to come up with much, if anything. Great for analysing the essential oils of plants but definitely not sensitive enough to do this. Also that manual is proving to be a huge pain to get ahold of, seems like older materials like this have a tendency to just disappear and gather dust or just plain get tossed...