Multidimensional gas chromatography using a double cool-strand interface.

Commercial interfaces for multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC) are based either on a valve or a pneumatic switching between columns. Both exhibit significant drawbacks and only few suppliers exist. An extremely simple interface has been set up to overcome these limitations without requiring any pneumatic control or valves switching. This new MDGC design is based on the cryo-control of the analyte transfer from the first to the second column through two cool strands of a capillary. This technique is simple to implement and does not require any special column connections. Applications involve non-polar/polar phase combinations, as well as chiral analysis, hyphenation to a conventional mass spectrometer, and olfactometric detection. In contrast to conventional MDGC configuration, the present configuration allows the use of a single oven to operate both columns at different temperatures.