Abstract. We report a microfabricated gas chromatography (GC) column that uses a thin layer of high-quality singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as a stationary phase. This 1.0-m-long, 160-μm-wide, 250-μm-deep column has the highest separation efficiency reported to date for microfabricated columns having an SWNT stationary phase. Separation efficiency was evaluated with a Golay plot, in which the minimum of the height equivalent to a theoretical plate was 0.062 cm. The microfabricated column was able to separate n-alkanes having high boiling points under temperatureprogrammed conditions. Use of SWNTs as a stationary phase will be potentially useful for high-performance micro-GC.

The development of a micro gas preconcentrator is crucial for the realization of miniaturized gas chromatography (micro-GC) systems which are expected to open up new applications such as breath analysis. One of the major problems with the reduction of preconcentrator size by miniaturization is the availability of a sorbent material which provides high enough concentration factor. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising materials for high adsorption capacity. In this report, a gas preconcentrator having the depth of 40 μm and the volume of 1 μL was microfabricated. The synthesized SWNT film with a thickness of 30 μm was embedded in the micro gas preconcentrator by using the hot water-assisted detachment method. The small size of the fabricated micro gas preconcentrator and the use of SWNTs as the adsorbent material allow for achieving a concentration factor as high as 16000 for 2 ppm octane. This value is the highest of micro gas preconcentrators, reported to date, and sufficient for micro-GC detectors to concentrate trace analytes of interest for breath analysis. It is demonstrated that the micro gas preconcentrators using SWNTs as an adsorbent material have great potential to concentrate compounds.

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