Features of a micro-gas chromatograph equipped with enrichment device and microchip plasma emission detection (μPED) for air monitoring

Abstract

A field portable gas chromatograph (GC) was constructed allowing the enrichment of organic solutes from air samples on a miniaturized chemical trap and the subsequent gas chromatographic analysis on a resistively heated capillary column. The heart of the system is an integrated chip-based plasma emission detector (μPED). As a non-selective detector, the sensitivity is similar to that of a flame ionization detector (FID). The detector shows good selectivity for phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine-containing compounds with relative selectivities of ca. 5 × 10⁵ gP gC⁻¹, 50 gS gC⁻¹ and 10² gCl gC⁻¹. The lifetime of the plasma chip under air monitoring conditions exceeded 3000 analyses.