Techniques in gas chromatography. Part II. Developments in the van Deemter rate theory of column performance. A review

Abstract

A broad outline of developments that have taken place in the van Deemter theory are reviewed. Authors are generally agreed upon the justifications for inclusion of a velocity-dependent term expressing resistance to mass transfer in the gas phase.

That the eddy diffusion term is independent of gas velocity is strongly challenged by Giddings, who has advanced a theory of “coupled eddy diffusion,” in which he argues that the effect of column-packing geometry on efficiency is modified by the effect of the gas mass-transfer term. Except at very high pressures experimental support for this is a subject of controversy and a dichotomy remains to be resolved.