Quantitative Aspects of Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC)

A software program was developed to enable the quantification of the complex 3D-data sets as produced by GC×GC. Using this software, it was demonstrated that the detectability limit of GC×GC in our study is 18 times better than that of ‘normal’ capillary gas chromatography (CGC). This enhancement is due to the signal increase produced by the thermal modulation effect. The relative standard deviation of 0.9% as measured on a test mixture was excellent. Furthermore, a comparison was made for the group-type separation of heavy gas oils between the hyphenation of LC and GC (LC-GC) and GC×GC. Although these separations are different in nature, the agreement of the results of both methods was very good. The results of GC×GC may even be more accurate, since, different from CGC, even in the most complex chromatograms the baseline in the second dimension chromatograms is always present.     

Determination of Oxygenates in Gasoline by GC×GC

Comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) has been applied to the quantitation of oxygenates in reformulated gasoline. Target oxygenates were C₁–C₄ alcohols, tert‐pentanol, methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), ethyl tert‐butyl ether (ETBE), and tert‐amyl methyl ether (TAME). These were separated from the gasoline matrix using a volatility‐based selectivity in the first chromatographic dimension, followed by a mixed‐phase polarity/shape selectivity in the second dimension. The high resolving power of this stationary phase combination completely separated all oxygenates except DIPE, ETBE, and TAME, which exhibited coelution with other nonpolar gasoline components. Oxygenates quantitation was achieved with the use of an internal standard, an FID detector, and calibration curves. Quantitation results are in good agreement with ASTM and EPA standard methods. When coupled with our previous method for BTEX and aromatics, a single GC×GC method can now quantitate MTBE, alcohols, BTEX, and aromatics in a one‐hour analysis.     

Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometric Detection (GC × GC/MS) Applied to the Analysis of Petroleum

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometric detection (GC × GC/MS) is a three-dimensional analytical method. In its application to petroleum analysis, the high peak capacity of GC × GC produced chromatographic resolution of over 750 peaks from a marine diesel fuel. The MS detector provided a full-scan mass spectrum for each resolved peak. The integration of an MS detector with GC × GC provides increased capability to identify minor components, determine members of homologous series, and characterize ordered peak patterns of related components that are visible in the GC × GC chromatogram.     

A Robust Thermal Modulator for Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography

In comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC), two capillary columns are connected in series through an interface known as a “thermal modulator”. This device transforms effluent from the first capillary column into a series of sharp injection-like chemical pulses suitable for high-speed chromatography on the second column. Dramatic increases in the resolving power, sensitivity, and speed of the gas chromatograph result. This paper describes the development of a robust and reliable thermal modulator for GC×GC.     

Application of Comprehensive Two‐Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC) to the Qualitative Analysis of Essential Oils

This paper investigates the separation of moderately complex samples by comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC). The analysis of peppermint (Mentha piperita) and spearmint (Mentha spicata) essential oil components, including acetates, alcohols, furans, ketones, sesquiterpenes, and terpenes, was achieved by one‐dimensional gas chromatography with quadrupole mass spectrometry detection (GC/MSD) and GC×GC with flame ionization detection. Peppermint essential oil was found to contain 89 identifiable peaks by GC×GC compared to 30 peaks in the GC/MSD chromatogram. Likewise, 68 peaks were found in the GC×GC chromatogram of spearmint (compared to 28 in GC/MSD). Plots of the first dimension versus second dimension retention times provided a fingerprint of the two essential oils, which revealed 52 similar compounds between the two essential oils as opposed to 18 matches by 1D GC.     

GC3: Comprehensive Three‐Dimensional Gas Chromatography

Comprehensive three‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC³) is demonstrated using modified GC×GC apparatus. A new thermal modulation scheme employing a single moving heater to operate two thermal modulators is introduced. Considerations of the bandwidth/resolution tradeoff of GC³ show that high‐speed tertiary columns would make GC³ practical, with modest loss of underlying GC×GC peak capacity.     

Proper Tuning of Comprehensive Two‐Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC) to Optimize the Separation of Complex Oil Fractions

Comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) is an utterly suitable separation technique for the analysis of complex samples, such as oil fractions. Once the two columns and the operating conditions are properly tuned, the technique is able to provide a detailed characterization of such materials. Some considerations applying to the tuning of a GC×GC system for a specific separation are presented and discussed. The authors present a number of different column sets and conditions which allow the separation of a non‐aromatic hydrocarbon solvent, a kerosene, the light end of a crude oil, and an olefinic fraction, respectively. The highly structured GC×GC chromatograms, together with chemical knowledge about the samples, provide a much more comprehensive characterization of the samples than hitherto possible.     

气相色谱法测定汽油馏分中的单体芳烃

采用三柱一阀气相色谱系统单次进样、归一化法定量分析初馏至200 ℃的汽油(包括含有醇类、醚类的成品汽油)中的芳烃含量。具体操作:样品进入系统后分为两路,一路经过分析柱1(Col.2)后直接到检测器;另一路进入预切柱(Col.1),烷烃和烯烃先于芳烃流出,待烷烃和烯烃放空后将阀切换到反吹状态,Col.1中的芳烃被反吹出来,进入分析柱2(Col.3),经过分离后到检测器,经计算得到样品分析结果。该法简便、快速、样品用量少、测试范围宽,避免了汽油中其他组分对芳烃测定的干扰。     

Design and Implementation of Comprehensive Gas Chromatography with Cryogenic Modulation

Comprehensive gas chromatography is the realization of true continuous multidimensional (dual column) gas chromatography. The key requirement in the comprehensive GC experiment is that the second dimension analysis is completed in a rapid time‐frame compared to the elution of components in the first dimension, and that the two coupled dimensions represent ‘orthogonal’ analyses towards the analytes to be separated. The former normally necessitates pulsing of contiguous segments of each chromatographic band from the first to the second dimensions. The two dimensions should be in fluid communication. The comprehensive GC×GC experiment passes all the column flow from the first column to the second column, leading to no sample loss, but this also requires a suitable method for time‐ or zone‐compression of the band to be pulsed to the second column. The final pulse should be narrow, and should be delivered to the second column quickly. A simple procedure can achieve this using the cryogenic modulator that has been recently described by this group. The system uses a cryogenic trap which can be moved away from the cooled zone of the column faster than 10 ms. A fast‐acting pneumatic ram achieves this performance. The cooled column heats up to the prevailing oven temperature within 10–15 ms. Molecules as volatile as C5 alkanes or small aromatics will be fully retained by the trap within the period of modulation used for GC×GC. The technique is simple to implement and requires no special column connections. Using a gas chromatograph which allows control of external events and can acquire from a detector at 50 Hz or faster, and a timing controller for modulation, the comprehensive result can easily and effectively be achieved.     

Enhancing the Limit of Detection for Comprehensive Two‐Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC) using Bilinear Chemometric Analysis

The chemometric method referred to as the generalized rank annihilation method (GRAM) is used to improve the precision, accuracy, and resolution of comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) data. Because GC×GC signals follow a bilinear structure, GC×GC signals can be readily extracted from noise by chemometric techniques such as GRAM. This resulting improvement in signal‐to‐noise ratio (S/N) and detectability is referred to as bilinear signal enhancement. Here, GRAM uses bilinear signal enhancement on both resolved and unresolved GC×GC peaks that initially have a low S/N in the original GC×GC data. In this work, the chemometric method of GRAM is compared to two traditional peak integration methods for quantifying GC×GC analyte signals. One integration method uses a threshold to determine the signal of a peak of interest. With this integration method only those data points above the limit of detection and within a selected area are integrated to produce the total analyte signal for calibration and quantification. The other integration method evaluated did not employ a threshold, and simply summed all the data points in a selected region to obtain a total analyte signal. Substantial improvements in quantification precision, accuracy, and limit of detection are obtained by using GRAM, as compared to when either peak integration method is applied. In addition, the GRAM results are found to be more accurate than results obtained by peak integration, because GRAM more effectively corrects for the slight baseline offset remaining after the background subtraction of data. In the case of a 2.7‐ppm propylbenzene synthetic sample the quantification result with GRAM is 2.6 times more precise and 4.2 times more accurate than the integration method without a threshold, and 18 times more accurate than the integration method with a threshold. The limit of detection for propylbenzene was 0.6 ppm (parts per million by mass) using GRAM, without implementing any sample preconcentration prior to injection. GRAM is also demonstrated as a means to resolve overlapped signals, while enhancing the S/N. Four alkyl benzene signals of low S/N which were not resolved by GC×GC are mathematically resolved and quantified.     

全二维气相色谱用于轻质石油馏分中芳烃含量的测定

建立了采用全二维气相色谱(GC×GC)技术一次进样完成轻质石油馏分中非芳烃、一环芳烃和二环芳烃的分离、定性 和定量。通过对柱系统的选择和色谱条件的优化,实现了一次全二维气相色谱分析即完成轻质石油馏分的族组成分离以及 目标化合物的分离。方法的加标回收率为89.5%～106.1%;样品中各组分含量重复测定的相对标准偏差均不大于5.8%,能 够满足样品测定的精密度和准确性要求,且完成1次分析最多只需要30 min。     

Jet‐Cooled Thermal Modulator for Comprehensive Multidimensional Gas Chromatography

A jet of cool gas is used to locally cool a section of modulator tube in the presence of the stirred oven bath of a GC×GC instrument. Local cooling decouples the temperature of the modulator tube from that of the first dimension column, which was 100 meters long. Overall resolution of the GC×GC experiment was improved as a result. Another consequence of the jet‐cooled thermal modulation structure is the elimination of moving parts in the GC oven. By pulsing cold and hot jets of gas onto a modulator tube with solenoid valves, two stage thermal modulation can be obtained without the complexity of moving parts in the vicinity of the capillary columns.     

Essential Oils of New Lippia alba Genotypes Analyzed by Flow-Modulated Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC) and Chemometric Analysis

Lippia alba (Mill.) N. E. Br. (Verbenaceae) is an aromatic shrub whose essential oils have stood out as a promising source for application in several industrial fields. In this study, the essential oils chemical characterization of eight new L. alba genotypes was performed. The selected materials were collected from the Active Germplasm Bank of the Agronomic Institute and the essential oils were extracted by hydrodistillation. Flow-modulated comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS) was employed for chemical characterization and evaluation of possible co-eluted compounds. In addition, the chemical analyses were submitted to multivariate statistical analyses. From this investigation, 73 metabolites were identified in the essential oils of the genotypes, from which α-pinene, β-myrcene, 1,8-cineole, linalool, neral, geranial, and caryophyllene oxide were the most abundant compounds among the accessions. This is the first report disclosing α-pinene in higher amounts in L. alba (19.69%). In addition, sabinene, trans-verbenol, myrtenol, (E)-caryophyllene, α-guaiene, germacrene D, and α-bulnesene were also found in relevant quantities in some of the genotypes, and myrtenal and myrtenol could be well separated through the second dimension. Such results contributed to the understanding of the chemical composition of those new genotypes, being important to drive a future industrial applicability and studies in genetic breeding.     

气相色谱法测定异氟烷含量

The isoflurane content was determined by using a 93mm × 2.1m glass GC column packed with 25%PEG-20M/Chromosorb P AW-DMCS(80～100 mesh)and flame ionization detector,and the column temperature was 70℃.The quantitative determination was performed with trichloromethane as internal standard.     

不同氯代毒杀芬的全二维气相色谱分离分析方法研究

建立了全二维气相色谱-电子捕获检测器法(GC×GC-μECD)分离分析不同氯代毒杀芬的新方法。通过实验优化,以非极性的DB-1MS为第1根色谱柱,以中等极性的BPX-50为第2根色谱柱对工业毒杀芬不同氯代化合物进行分离分析,获得良好的分离效果。采用基质曲线外标法进行定量分析,线性系数(r2)均大于0.99,不同氯代毒杀芬的检出限(S/N=3)为0.2~0.6μg/L,相对标准偏差(RSD,n=7)为9%~20%,利用土壤为基质进行加标实验,不同氯代毒杀芬同类物的回收率为65%~105%。     

全二维气相色谱/飞行时间质谱用于烟用香精化学组分的分析

采用全二维气相色谱/飞行时间质谱(GC×GC/TOFMS),以较长的极性柱DB-WAX(60 m×0.25 mm×0.25μm)作为第一柱,较短的中等极性柱DB-1701(3 m×0.1 mm,0.4μm)作为第二柱,对一种国产香烟中常用的烟用香精进行了分析,共鉴定出相似度和反相似度分别大于800和900的化合物有84种(在相同条件下,GC/MS鉴定出的组分数仅为21种)。在与GC×GC/TOFMS相同的分析条件下,利用多内标定量法,用GC-GC/氢火焰离子化检测器(FID)进一步对这些组分进行了准确定量。实验结果很好地解释了该香精的致香机理。     

全二维气相色谱/飞行时间质谱用于柴油组成的研究

将全二维气相色谱法(GC×GC)用于柴油馏分的组成分布研究,建立了两种GC×GC方法,一种用于柴油组成的详细表征,另一种用于柴油族组成的快速分离和定量,两种方法均不需要样品预处理。用前一种方法对柴油馏分中的烃类化合物、主要的含硫化合物与含氮化合物组成进行了研究;对催化裂解柴油中的27种含氮化合物和42种含硫化合物进行了定性;用后一种方法在70 min内即可完成柴油馏分族组成的定量分析,应用所建立的方法测定了4个不同来源的柴油馏分中非芳烃、一环芳烃、二环芳烃、三环芳烃的含量,定量结果与ASTM D2425法     

全二维气相色谱-飞行时间质谱对催化裂化汽油的定性与定量分析

采用全二维气相色谱-飞行时间质谱(GC×GC-TOF MS)对催化裂化汽油全馏分进行了定性与定量分析,建立了相应的分析方法.结果表明,汽油族组成中的烷烃、烯烃、环烷烃、芳烃在全二维点阵谱图中呈分区域、带状的分布特点.GC×GC-TOF MS根据催化裂化汽油组分内分子的沸点及极性差异对其进行两个维度分离,极大地避免了普通色谱法分析过程中沸点相似化合物共流的弊端,实现催化裂化汽油组分的精确分离和准确定性分析.通过引入响应因子,修正了不同性质的烃类在电离源上电离效率的差异,使得TOF对催化裂化汽油族组成的定量结果与普通气相色谱法的定量结果的相关性较好,且应用GC×GC-TOF MS方法获得了催化裂化汽油更为精确的族组成信息.GC×GC-TOF MS为催化裂化汽油精确表征提供了一种有效方法.