A portable multi‐dimensional gas chromatographic system for field applications

Abstract

AbstractWe have constructed and tested a multi‐dimensional gas chromatographic system that can be utilized for field portable applications. The chromatographic system is capable of one‐dimensional separations and multi‐dimensional gas chromatographic (MDGC) separations in a single compact package. Three different general multi‐dimensional separation approaches are possible: column switching; traditional heart‐cutting; and comprehensive analyses. The MDGC system utilizes a simple 10‐port valving approach to accomplish these separations to a single point detector. Because of this valving scheme no hardware change is required to switch between the heart‐cut and the comprehensive separation modes, only a software methodology change is required. An additional advantage of this valving approach is that 100% of the first‐dimensional effluent is sampled to the second dimension for separation. The system is capable of rapid column heating (room temperature to 250°C in approximately 10 s) and rapid column cooling (250°C to room temperature within approximately 30 s). Preliminary results for heart‐cut and comprehensive separations that target five compounds against high concentration levels of complex background are illustrated.