Gc × gc-MS Hyphenated Techniques for the Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds in Air

Abstract

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) and its direct applications to measurement of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds in air are reviewed and discussed. The paper includes a brief discussion of the instrumental set-up and theory for the comprehensive GC × GC hyphenated with different detection techniques. Several reviewed types of modulators demonstrate that the applications of comprehensive GC × GC are still under development, underlying the flexibility of the system as well. The fundamental differences between one-dimensional and twodimensional gas chromatography, regarding their potential to provide both qualitative and quantitative information, are also presented. The present article focuses on reported applications dealing with the analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds from air (gas and particles related), but some data related to other sample types analyzed with comprehensive GC × GC are also briefly presented. The paper supports the idea that there is a good reason for interest in comprehensive GC × GC, which seems to be a suitable technique for applications in the separation of complex mixtures of volatile and semivolatile compounds.

The Molecular Identification of Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere: State of the Art and Challenges

“…261 It consists in coupling two GC columns in series, 262 generally functioning on different separation mechanisms. 263 The chromatograms are usually represented with the retention times for each column in x-and y-axis, respectively, and the peak height as colored contour.…”

Mass spectrometric approaches for chemical characterisation of atmospheric aerosols: critical review of the most recent advances

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Size-resolved characterisation of organic compounds in atmospheric aerosols collected at Welgegund, South Africa

“…Lewis et al (2000) were the first to report the use of GCxGC-TOFMS for atmospheric samples collected on filters in urban air. Since then, GCxGC-TOFMS has been successfully applied in characterising a wide range of organic compounds present in complex ambient atmospheric samples (Welthagen et al 2003;Kallio et al 2003Kallio et al , 2006Hamilton et al 2004;Laitinen et al 2010;Arsene et al 2011;Alam et al 2013). The aim of this investigation was to collect ambient PM in different size fractions in the interior of South Africa for 1 year in order to analyse these samples with GCxGC-TOFMS in order to identify and semi-quantify organic compounds in the atmosphere.…”