Studies on thermionic ionisation detection in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

This study explores the application of specific thermionic ionisation detection in comprehensive 2-D GC (GC x GC) and represents the first report of GC x GC with nitrogen phosphorus detection (GC x GC-NPD). Of particular interest is the performance of the NPD with respect to peak parameters of asymmetry and sensitivity. Since GC x GC produces much narrower peaks than obtained with fast GC (e.g. 100 ms vs. <1 s) the effect of detector response time and any lack of symmetry arising from the detection step is important if peak separation (resolution) is to be maintained. It was observed that detector gas flows had a significant impact on peak asymmetry and peak magnitude, and that optimisation of the detector was critical, particularly for complex sample analysis by GC x GC-NPD. Peak asymmetries ranging from A(s) = 1.8 to 8.0 were observed under different conditions of detector gas flows. Comparison of GC x GC-NPD with GC x GC-flame ionisation detection (FID) showed the former to be approximately 20 times more sensitive for the detection of nitrogen-containing methoxypyrazines analytes, and GC x GC-NPD had a larger linear detection range compared to GC x GC-FID. Furthermore, comparison of GC x GC-NPD and GC x GC-TOFMS chromatograms for the analysis of coffee head-space demonstrated the benefits of selective detection, ultimately realised in a comparatively simplified contour plot.