Instrumentation Development
Our skills in instrumentation development have been a key resource of the Environmental Engineering group. These skills were first developed in the course of our initial incineration research for the US Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s and 1980s. This work required the development of thermal instrumentation systems that incorporated “hyphenated” analytical techniques, e.g. gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Gas chromatography has been the cornerstone of our analytical methods used to analyze complex hazardous organic mixtures. Further development of multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (MDGC-MS) is the current priority in the Instrumentation Development laboratory.
Equipment currently available includes a modified Hewlett Packard 5890 GC for conducting multidimensional GC studies, specialized GC detectors, and coupled high-resolution column fabrication facilities. Research is also continuing on a novel, fast, high-resolution GC technique referred to as thermal gradient programmed gas chromatography (TGPGC).
The thermal instrumentation developed in this laboratory is currently used in our Thermal Decomposition Laboratory to evaluate the thermal stability of organic materials.
Selected Publications
W. A. Rubey, “An Instrumentation Assembly for Studying Operational Behavior of Thermal Gradient Programmed Gas Chromatography,” Review of Scientific Instruments, 65, 2802, 1994.
W. A. Rubey, “Operational Theory and Instrumental Implementation of the Thermal Gradient Programmed Gas Chromatography (TGPGC) Mode of Analysis,” Journal of High Resolution Chromatography, 15, 795, 1992.
J. L. Graham, B. Dellinger, D. Klosterman, G. Glatzmaier, and G. Nix, "Disposal of Toxic Wastes Using Concentrated Solar Radiation," In: Emerging Technologies in Hazardous Waste Management II, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, Chapter 6, 1991.
W. A. Rubey, “A Different Operational Mode for Addressing the General Elution Problem in Rapid Analysis Gas Chromatography,” Journal of High Resolution Chromatography, 14, 542, 1991.
W. A. Rubey and R. A. Grant, "Design Aspects of a Modular Instrumentation System for Thermal Diagnostic Studies," Review of Scientific Instruments, 59, 265, 1988.
W. A. Rubey and R. A. Carnes, "Design of a Tubular Reactor Instrumentation Assembly for Conducting Thermal Decomposition Studies," Review of Scientific Instruments, 56, 1795, 1985.