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We take a look at the past, present, and future of applying gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) techniques to non-targeted screening (NTS) in various disciplines, assessing both the opportunities and the challenges.

Gas Chromatography Meets Non-Targeted Screening

Kevin A. Schug is a Full Professor and Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at The University of Texas (UT) at Arlington. He joined the faculty at UT Arlington in 2005 after completing a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Virginia Tech under the direction of Prof. Harold M. McNair and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Vienna under Prof. Wolfgang Lindner. Research in the Schug group spans fundamental and applied areas of separation science and mass spectrometry. Schug was named the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography in 2009, and most recently has been named the 2012 American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Young Investigator in Separation Science awardee.

Recycling plastics involves catalytically cracking polymers back into their constituent monomer mixtures, which require careful characterization for further processing. There is a resurging need for detectors that can detect and characterize heteroatom-containing species.

From Recycled Plastic to Pyrolysis Oils: A Renewed Need for a Broad Range of Gas Chromatography (GC) Detector Technologies

Correlation, clustering, and color projection techniques exploit the ability of the human brain to identify patterns from huge amounts of visual information. This process can provide a life raft for a weary chromatographer who is drowning in data.

Using the Three Cs of Data Visualization as a Life Raft When You’re Drowning in Multidimensional Chromatography Peaks

Solid adsorbent gas chromatography (GC) columns, such as porous layer open tubular (PLOT) columns, are the best option for GC analysis of C1–C5 hydrocarbons, but water can affect retention and selectivity. We review the effects of water for different types of PLOT columns, and explain how to prevent or remediate the problem.

Effects of Water on Adsorbents in Porous Layer Open Tubular (PLOT) Column Gas Chromatography (GC)

Microextraction is an affordable solution for preventing “garbage in–garbage out” effects in one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) GC separations, by providing analyte preconcentration, interference removal, tuning of extraction coverage, and easy coupling to GC systems.

The Role of Microextraction Techniques in Facilitating Gas Chromatography Separation of Complex Mixtures

Separation science is an intriguing and challenging (yes, let’s admit it) interdisciplinary field. Many of our daily rituals depend on effective chemical separations. 

The LCGC Blog: To Prep or Not to Prep? That is the Question…

A review of the history and fundamentals for determining and reporting limit of detection (LOD) for analytical instruments and methods. Includes a discussion of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and propagation of errors methods used for calculating LOD, and explains the limitations of the IUPAC method in modern chromatography.

Going Low: Understanding Limit of Detection in Gas Chromatography

Tony Taylor is Group Technical Director of Crawford Scientific Group and CHROMacademy. His background is in pharmaceutical R&D and polymer chemistry, but he has spent the past 20 years in training and consulting, working with Crawford Scientific Group clients to ensure they attain the very best analytical science possible. He has trained and consulted with thousands of analytical chemists globally and is passionate about professional development in separation science, developing CHROMacademy as a means to provide high-quality online education to analytical chemists. His current research interests include HPLC column selectivity codification, advanced automated sample preparation, and LCâMS and GCâMS for materials characterization, especially in the field of extractables and leachables analysis.

I’d like to concentrate on variables that can really impact our chromatography, but may be on hidden, supplementary, or advanced pages of our software, or may appear on the main software acquisitions menus, but are poorly understood or rarely altered. These variables are often not specifically referenced in laboratory methods documents or, if they do appear, are poorly understood. 

The LCGC Blog: Killer Gas Chromatography Variables—and Other Insidious Ways to Destroy your Chromatography!

Decomposing animal tissue releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs), of interest in forensic science. We describe the use of GC×GC–qMS/FID retrofitted with a reverse fill/flush (RFF) flow modulator for analyzing these VOCs in a tropical climate.

Investigating Decomposition Odor in a Tropical Climate by Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography (GC×GC) Coupled with Mass Spectrometry (MS) and Flame Ionization Detection (FID)

The limit of detection (LOD) of an analytical method may be defined as the smallest concentration of analyte that has a signal significantly greater than that of a blank sample signal. We explore the sources of experimental uncertainty and variability in LOD determinations.

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