Applications of mass flow controlled multicolumn switching in on-line capillary GC-MS

The separation and analysis of low concentrations of organic compounds in complex sample matrices, such as petroleum products, waste and drinking water, food, beverages and pharmaceutical products is a rather complex analytical problem. Current methods are hampered by insufficient resolution obtained by single capillary columns even if they have rather high plate numbers. In this paper the potential of a combination of programmed temperature sample introduction and mass flow controlled multi column dual oven capillary gas chromatography and on-line mass spectrometry will be discussed and illustrated. The effect of cold trapping in between the columns for components with a moderate volatility will be demonstrated for different applications dealing with the determination of trace impurities in various main products such as gasoline, aromatics, steroids and anilin.