Open access

Introductory Chapter: Recent Advances in Gas Chromatography

Written By

Fabrice Mutelet

Published: 13 April 2022

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.101238

From the Edited Volume

Recent Advances in Gas Chromatography

Edited by Fabrice Mutelet

Chapter metrics overview

205 Chapter Downloads

View Full Metrics

1. Introduction

Gas chromatography (GC) is one of the most widely used techniques for the characterization, the separation and the quantification of complex systems. Researchers have pushed the limits of this technique by coming up with new methods for the preparation of samples and by using and/or coupling new families of columns. This last decade, the hyphenated technique coupling GC or GC-MS and a spectroscopic technique was developed [1]. These combinations of technologies have been used for qualitative but also quantitative studies of complex systems [2, 3, 4, 5]. Multidimensional gas chromatography was also proposed for the analysis of complex fluids found in food, petroleum, and pharmaceutical industries [6, 7, 8]. It is now well established that comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) is an efficient technique for fast pyrolysis bio-oil analysis [9], petroleum fluids [10], or characterization of flavonoid composition in food [11].

In gas chromatography, different approaches can be considered depending on the nature of the sample. Samples containing light compounds or moderate volatility can be studied using the classical approach. It means by the injection of the samples in the apparatus. For heavy compounds with low volatility, inverse gas chromatography (IGC) is preferred to characterize the samples. In IGC, the sample becomes the stationary phase. Both approaches do not give the same information, while IGC will give information on the interaction between a solute injected and the stationary phase or on the partition coefficient of the solute in the stationary phase, GC allows the quantification of components in the sample.

This last decade, new stationary phases based on ionic liquids or deep eutectic solvents were investigated due to their specific selectivity [12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. Numerous approaches were proposed to classify stationary phases [17]. Among others, Kovats index [18] and solvation models [19, 20, 21, 22] are the most popular to represent the polar character of the stationary phases. All retention data related to Gibbs-free energy may be expressed using solvation models. Parameters from the linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) model can be estimated via gas chromatography. This approach was strongly used to develop relationship between physicochemical properties and LSER parameters [15, 23, 24].

In this book, state of the art of gas chromatography and new developments and applications are presented. New sample preparation techniques and hyphenated techniques are presented. The behavior and the characteristics of new stationary phases based on ionic liquids are also described. Then, theoretical approaches developed to predict the behavior of solutes with stationary phases are detailed.

Advertisement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

  1. 1. Patel KN, Patel JK, Patel MP, Rajput GC, Patel HA. Introduction to hyphenated techniques and their applications in pharmacy. Pharmaceutical Methods. 2010;1(1):2-13. DOI: 10.4103/2229-4708.72222
  2. 2. Wang FC-Y. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography hyphenated with a vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer to analyze diesel—A three-dimensional separation (GC × GC × VUV) approach. Energy Fuels. 2020;34(7):8012-8017. DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c00688
  3. 3. Jia W, Fan Z, Du A, Li Y, Zhang R, Shi Q , et al. Recent advances in Baijiu analysis by chromatography based technology—A review. Food Chemistry. 2020;324:126899. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.126899
  4. 4. Gordillo R. Supercritical fluid chromatography hyphenated to mass spectrometry for metabolomics applications. Journal of Separation Science. 2021;44(1):448-463. DOI: 10.1002/jssc.202000805
  5. 5. Sdrigotti N, Collard M, Purcaro G. Evolution of hyphenated techniques for mineral oil analysis in food. Journal of Separation Science. 2021;44(1):464-482. DOI: 10.1002/jssc.202000901
  6. 6. Machado ME. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography for the analysis of nitrogen-containing compounds in fossil fuels: A review. Talanta. 2019;198:263-276. DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2019.02.031
  7. 7. Pico Y, Alfarhan AH, Barcelo D. How recent innovations in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry have improved pesticide residue determination: An alternative technique to be in your radar. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry. 2020;122:115720. DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2019.115720
  8. 8. Kulsing C, Nolvachai Y, Marriott PJ. Concepts, selectivity options and experimental design approaches in multidimensional and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry. 2020;130:115995. DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2020.115995
  9. 9. Negahdar L, Gonzalez-Quiroga A, Otyuskaya D, Toraman HE, Liu L, Jastrzebski JTBH, et al. Characterization and comparison of fast pyrolysis bio-oils from pinewood, rapeseed cake, and wheat straw using 13c nmr and comprehensive GC × GC. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 2016;4(9):4974-4985. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b01329
  10. 10. Jennerwein MK, Sutherland AC, Eschner M, Gröger T, Wilharm T, Zimmermann R. Quantitative analysis of modern fuels derived from middle distillates—The impact of diverse compositions on standard methods evaluated by an offline hyphenation of HPLC-refractive index detection with GC×GC-TOFMS. Fuel. 2017;187:16-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2016.09.033
  11. 11. Cecchi L, Ieri F, Vignolini P, Mulinacci N, Romani A. Characterization of volatile and flavonoid composition of different cuts of dried onion (Allium cepa L.) by HS-SPME-GC-MS, HS-SPME-GC×GC-TOF and HPLC-DAD. Molecules. 2020;25(2):408. DOI: 10.3390/molecules25020408
  12. 12. Nkosi N, Tumba K, Ramsuroop S. Activity coefficients at infinite dilution of various organic solutes in the deep eutectic solvent (tetramethylammonium chloride + 1,6 hexanediol in the 1:1 molar ratio). South African Journal of Chemical Engineering. 2019;27:7-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.sajce.2018.11.003
  13. 13. Nkosi N, Tumba K, Ramsuroop S. Activity coefficients at infinite dilution of various solutes in tetrapropylammonium bromide + 1,6-hexanediol deep eutectic solvent. Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data. 2018;63(12):4502-4512. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jced.8b00600
  14. 14. Nkosi N, Tumba K, Ramsuroop S. Measurements of activity coefficient at infinite dilution for organic solutes in tetramethylammonium chloride + ethylene glycol deep eutectic solvent using gas-liquid chromatography. Fluid Phase Equilibria. 2018;462:31-37. DOI: 10.1016/j.fluid.2018.01.019
  15. 15. Mutelet F, Baker GA, Ravula S, Qian E, Wang L, Acree WE. Infinite dilution activity coefficients and gas-to-liquid partition coefficients of organic solutes dissolved in 1-sec-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide and in 1-tert-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide. Physics and Chemistry of Liquids. 2019;57(4):453-472. DOI: 10.1080/00319104.2018.1491045
  16. 16. Revelli A-L, Mutelet F, Jaubert J-N. Prediction of partition coefficients of organic compounds in ionic liquids: Use of a linear solvation energy relationship with parameters calculated through a group contribution method. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 2010;49(8):3883-3892. DOI: 10.1021/ie901776z
  17. 17. Abraham MH, Poole CF, Poole SK. Classification of stationary phases and other materials by gas chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A. 1999;842(1):79-114. DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9673(98)00930-3
  18. 18. Kováts E. Gas-chromatographische Charakterisierung organischer Verbindungen. Teil 1: Retentionsindices aliphatischer Halogenide, Alkohole, Aldehyde und Ketone. Helvetica Chimica Acta. 1958;41(7):1915-1932. DOI: 10.1002/hlca.19580410703
  19. 19. Abraham MH. Scales of solute hydrogen-bonding: Their construction and application to physicochemical and biochemical processes. Chemical Society Reviews. 1993;22(2):73-83. DOI: 10.1039/CS9932200073
  20. 20. Abraham MH, Whiting GS, Doherty RM, Shuely WJ. Hydrogen bonding. XVI. A new solute salvation parameter, π2H, from gas chromatographic data. Journal of Chromatography A. 1991;587(2):213-228. DOI: 10.1016/0021-9673(91)85158-C
  21. 21. Abraham MH, Whiting GS, Doherty RM, Shuely WJ. Hydrogen bonding. Part 13. A new method for the characterisation of GLC stationary phases - The Laffort data set. Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions. 1990;2(8):1451-1460
  22. 22. Proctor A, Sprunger L, Acree WE Jr, Abraham MH. LFER correlations for the solubilising characterisation of room temperature ionic liquids containing trifluoromethanesulfonate and trifluoroacetate anions. Physics and Chemistry of Liquids. 2008;46(6):631-642. DOI: 10.1080/00319100802087191
  23. 23. Mutelet F, Ortega-Villa V, Moïse J-C, Jaubert J-N, Acree WE. Prediction of partition coefficients of organic compounds in ionic liquids using a temperature-dependent linear solvation energy relationship with parameters calculated through a group contribution method. Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data. 2011;56(9):3598-3606. DOI: 10.1021/je200454d
  24. 24. Rabhi F, Mutelet F, Sifaoui H, Wagle DV, Baker GA, Churchill B, et al. Characterization of the solubilizing ability of tetraalkylammonium ionic liquids containing a pendant alkyl chain bearing a basic N,N-dimethylamino or N,N-dimethylaminoethoxy functionality. Journal of Molecular Liquids. 2019;283:380-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2019.03.066

Written By

Fabrice Mutelet

Published: 13 April 2022