Developments in ultra-fast temperature programming with silicon micromachined gas chromatography: performance and limitations

Various commercially available ultra-fast temperature programming approaches were integrated to silicon micromachined GC (micro-GC) for performance improvement assessment. The combined technique of micro-GC and ultra-fast temperature programming up to a rate of 6°C/second yielded an extended analysis range to undecane (nC(11)), improved signal detectability by at least a factor of three for the solutes studied with respectable one day reproducibility of less than 1% relative standard deviation in retention time (n = 20). Through careful control of various variables affecting retention time, performance improvements can be extended further. The various effects temperature programming has on the stability of thermal conductivity detector as well as criteria that need to be met for the successful implementation of ultra-fast temperature programming in micro-GC are presented.