Wiktionary
carrier gas
n. A chemically inert gas used as the mobile phase in gas chromatography
Usage examples of "carrier gas".
One of the principal instruments used in pesticide analysis, introduced in the early sixties, was the gas chromatograph, in which the sample being tested is vaporized into a stream of carrier gas that is passed through a column of porous material.
Any organic impurities were driven off by heating, and a carrier gas transported the sample through a separation column and into a Flame Ionization Detector.