Method for Admitting and Receiving Samples in a Gas Chromatographic Column (223)

UDRI researchers have developed a new operational process and methodology for the collection, admittance, and/or reception of gas chromatographic samples, known as the Step-Pressurization Acceleration and Reception, or SPAR, process. The SPAR process consists of a strict operational sequence with specially-designed hardware for collecting, admitting and spatially receiving samples for various forms of gas chromatographic (GC) analysis. Such samples can be of a gaseous, volatile, semivolatile, or complex multiphase nature containing a wide-molecular mass range.

The SPAR is a gentle process which is not destructive to fragile or thermally labile compounds and provides a significant measure of chromatographic pre-separation within the inlet region of the GC assembly. It also produces extremely narrow initial zones which subsequently permit efficient analytical separations to be made using programmed-temperature gas chromatography (PTGC), thermal gradient programmed gas chromatography (TGPGC), and the various forms of multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC). SPAR hardware components can be suitable for any type of open tubular GC column and can be installed into practically any laboratory GC instrument.

Any solute that can be analyzed by contemporary GC can be readily collected and faithfully transported using SPAR. SPAR possesses the long-awaited features necessary for an extended-live injector assembly. This process does not require the frequent injector-region maintenance which is highly limiting and a major obstacle in high-resolution GC.

SPAR provides a practical solution to common GC problems such as sample injection and reception, elapsed time of GC analysis, complex samples with wide molecular-weight range, migration of thermally labile chemical constituents, separations with higher resolution, and non-versatility of instrumental operation.

U.S. Patent 5,846,293 issued December 8, 1998.

For more information, please contact the Office for Technology Partnerships at 937-229-3515.

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