A very thick film open-tubular trap for headspace capillary gas chromatography

Abstract

An open-tubular trap with a very thick film was studied for “full on-line” headspace capillary gas chromatography, and was used as an enrichment trap for headspace sampling. The preparation of the open-tubular column with up to an 80 μm thick film, by combining both static and dynamic coating, is described in detail. The break-through volume for the open-tubular trap of different film thickness, as the loading capacity for HS sampling, does not increase linearly in proportion to the film thickness. A study of the difference between a packed adsorbent trap and an open-tubular trap shows that HS capillary GC with open-tubular trap loses less of the retention capacity, has better resolution ability and higher recovery. By independently and rapidly heating the open-tubular trap, the GC peaks may have higher resolution. Examples of successful analyses, by the opentubular trap with “full on-line” HS capillary GC, include trace aromatic hydrocarbon (1 ppm-100 ppm) in polybutadiene-styrene rubber and trace alcohol and acrylic esters (10 ppm–1000 ppm) in polyacrylate hydrous emulsion.