Short Capillary Traps in GC–GC Tandem Systems for Direct Analysis of T2 Mycotoxin in Aqueous Samples

Two-metre long pieces were cut from a 25-m long fused silica GC column with an inner diameter of 300 μm and a film thickness of 1.2 μm 5% phenyl polymetyhylsiloxane and used as traps to extract T2 mycotoxin from aqueous solutions. Water samples were pushed through the traps at various velocities using nitrogen, then rinsed and dried. The traps were installed in a PTV accessory within a GC oven with 5 cm of the outlet outside the oven. The portion of the trap within the oven was heated and the analyte was focused on the short piece outside the oven. The focused solute was then thermally desorbed and separated into another 25-m long capillary column installed in a second GC and directly coupled to the trap outlet (GC–GC tandem system). The recovery of the analyte was nearly quantitative and independent of sample salinity and experimental conditions set in the trapping operation.