The history of research and organisational activity at the laboratory of chromatography of the institute of physical chemistry

Abstract

In 2020, the Laboratory of Physicochemical Principles of Chromatography and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry of the Institute of Physical chemistry and Electrochemistry of RAS is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The article describes the history of the laboratory, from its opening and development in the USSR to the current development prospects. It also describes the most important scientific and organisational achievements of the laboratory’s heads and staff over several decades. It was Professor Evgeny N. Gapon (1891-1950), Head of the Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry of Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy (MAA), who pioneered the field of chromatography in the USSR. In 1950, the value of chromatography for scientific projects and applied research was demonstrated by the opening of a special laboratory at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The first head of the Laboratory of Chromatography was Professor Konstantin V. Chmutov. He supervised the studies of the principles of statics, dynamics, and kinetics on zeolites and ion exchangers performed in order to implement chromatographic processes in industrial production. After his death in 1979, the research was continued by Oleg G. Larionov (1932-2013), DSc in Chemistry. Oleg Larionov and the laboratory’s researchers performed the key studies in the field of liquidsolid chromatography, barochromatography, and chromatographic titration. In 1984, the Laboratory of Physicochemical Principles of Chromatography welcomed new members – Lyubov D. Belyakova, Yury A. Eltenkov, and Natalia P. Platonova, former colleagues of the late Andrey V. Kiselev, DSc in Chemistry and a world famous physical chemist. In 2004, the laboratory invited more new members: researchers from the Laboratory of Spectroscopy of IPCE RAS specialising in mass spectrometry, including Alexey K. Buryak, DSc in Chemistry, who was appointed the Head of a new Laboratory of Physicochemical Principles of Chromatography and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry. Currently the laboratory staff perform research aimed at improving the retention methods in gas chromatography and theoretical modelling and experimental testing of retention on carbon and chromatography sorbents for liquid and gas chromatography. One of the methods for predicting the gas chromatographic retention indices based on the analyte’s structure is used in modern artificial intelligence techniques (deep convolutional neural networks).