Gas Chromatography (GC)

Over the last 10 years, several solvent-free microextraction techniques for gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS) have been developed. Two of these techniques, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), are available commercially for the analysis of volatile compounds, such as flavors in foods and beverages, and toxic organic compounds in environmental applications. Other techniques, such as open tubular trapping, inside needle capillary adsorption trap (1), in-tube SPME, capillary microextraction, needle trap, and headspace solid-phase dynamic extraction (2), were also developed for different applications. The basic principle for all of these techniques is essentially the same. Volatile and semivolatile compounds are adsorbed on a sorbent coating, often packed on the interior surface of a capillary column or stainless steel needle. After the sample is concentrated on the coating, the compounds are desorbed thermally in the heated injection port of a gas..

Illegal drug use worldwide is at an all-time high. There is a crucial need for fast and accurate analysis to positively identify suspected drugs in criminal investigations. Gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC–TOFMS) can be a valuable tool for drug testing in forensic crime laboratories. Method development and GC–TOFMS experimentation was conducted in cooperation with a local crime laboratory. The laboratory testing presented will illustrate highly efficient methods and data developed for crime labs that assist in the battle against illegal drugs. Many drug classes have chemical properties that present particular analytical challenges, such as poor detector response, chemical lability, or poor chromatographic peak shape. This article presents GC–TOFMS methods developed for several major drug classes and chemical functionalities. The major drugs included in the initial method development are methamphetamine, ecstasy, and heroin. Robust and accurate..

This month in "GC Connections," in the first of a two-part series, John Hinshaw relates what happens when high-voltage spikes attack modern electronic equipment, what to do when they occur, and more.

OI Corp (College Station, Texas), a provider of a variety of technologies in the chemical analysis field, has entered into an agreement with DANI Instruments SpA (Cologno Monzese, Italy), a developer of GC instruments and accessories.

Nysa Membrane Technologies, Inc., announced Natrix Separations, Inc. as the company's new name.

Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced that it has hosted the first of three leadership delegations from China's Anti-Doping Agency, as China prepares for the 2008 Olympic Games.

RVM Scientific (Santa Barbara, California), a manufacturer of direct heating/cooling systems for laboratory instruments, has been acquired by Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, California).

The Pittsburgh Conference announces the launch of its 2009 website, www.pittcon.org, containing relevant information for conferees and exhibitors about Pittcon 2009 which will be in Chicago, Illinois, McCormick Place, March 8 -13, 2009.

Successful gas chromatography (GC), akin to many other disciplines, requires regular attention to a number of routine procedures. Chromatographers, similar to anyone else, develop habits in their daily work. Some of these help create a successful laboratory environment, while others can be ineffective or worse, can create more problems than they solve. This month, "GC Connections" presents a few of the best and worse laboratory habits.

The authors present results that suggest that high-throughput, high-coverage profiling capabilities, such as those afforded by GCxGC-TOF-MS, can impact the development of personalized medicine.

Separations Systems Inc. Honored at White House

Northeastern University Researcher Receives International Honors

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, announced that they have been presented with two 2008 Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards for Market Leadership and Competitive Strategy Leadership in Informatics.

In the first reported study of skeletal muscles in hibernating creatures by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), scientists from Korea have attempted to shed some light on the molecular processes behind atrophy prevention.

Scientists in China have devised a GC-ECD procedure that involves bromination of acrylamide to give a derivative that is more easily detected at low levels than acrylamide itself. Their research comes in response to the discovery of acrylamide in many types of cooked food in 2002. This discovery made news due to the link between acrylamide and cancer. From a scientific point of view, the acrylamide discovery ensured the creation of a new generation of research grants, many of which involve mass spectrometry, using GC?MS or LC?MS.

Advion Biosciences Inc. (Ithaca, New York), a developer of microfluidic sampling technology for mass spectrometry (MS) has bought almost all assets of its production supplier, Washburn Manufacturing Technologies Inc. (Trumansburg, New York) for an undisclosed amount.

Agilent Technologies has announced the presentation of the 2008 Manfred Donike Award for scientific excellence in sports doping testing to the German research scientist Ulrich Flenker, of the Institute of biochemistry, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany.

GE Healthcare recently announced its completion of the acquisition of Whatman, which is a global supplier of filtration technologies and products.

Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany), a privately-held pharmaceutical and specialist chemicals company, has acquired the assets of chromatographic column developer SeQuant AB (Umea, Sweden). "[The aquisition] offers Merck superb opportunities for the future expansion of the chromatography business," said Klaus Bischoff, head of the Performance and Life Science Chemicals division at Merck.

The assessment of accuracy, which involves the estimation of precision and the determination of trueness, refers to the process of evaluating whether the results provided by analytical methods are close to accepted reference values. The different references available in chromatographic analysis and useful guidelines to perform such a comparison are described.

The potential of the time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) to innovate the analysis of soft drinks is described using gas chromatography (GC) hyphenated to TOF-MS and a new type of ion source, direct analysis in real time (DART), coupled to high-resolution TOF-MS. Head-space solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used to isolate/extract volatile compounds followed by GC–TOF-MS to identify tainted compound in contaminated soft drinks. Direct analysis in real time–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART–TOF-MS) was also used to obtain negative and positive ion profiles of different soft drinks to determine the presence of various compounds, including antimicrobial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, acidulants and saccharides, without any sample preparation and chromatographic separation.

This annual "GC Connections" installment reviews GC instrumentation and accessories shown at this year's Pittcon and also includes some products from Analytica in Munich.

To obtain a better understanding of the challenges faced during method development and validation, the authors - in cooperation with LCGC - conducted a survey earlier this year. This column summarizes the results.

Scientists Jorn Chi Chung Yu, Garrett Lee Burleson, and colleagues in the Department of Forensic Science at Sam Houston State University in Texas have developed a new method for identifying gunshot residue without the presence of lead.

PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) announced the "Ettre Award" to honor a young scientist in the field of gas chromatography.