The plate height in a particularly packed gas chromatography column is characterized by the van Deemter equation with parameters: A= 1.50 mm, B= 25.0 mm ml/min, and C = 0.0250 mm min/mL.
a) Please use spreadsheet to construct a graph of plate height versus flow rate (u in the unit of mL/min) and find the optimum flow rate for minimum plate height.
b) Also using the graph, please determine the appropriate range of the flow rate in order to achieve a plate height of 4.00 mm?