Sample injection, chromatography

Preparing a Volatile Sample Gas chromatography can be used to separate analytes in complex matrices. Not every sample that can potentially be analyzed by GG, however, can be injected directly into the instrument. To move through the column, the sample s constituents must be volatile. Solutes of low volatility may be retained by the column and continue to elute during the analysis of subsequent samples. Nonvolatile solutes condense on the column, degrading the column s performance. 

Cool on-column injection is used for trace analysis. Ah. of the sample is introduced without vaporization by inserting the needle of the syringe at a place where the column has been previously stripped of hquid phase. The injection temperature must be at or below the boiling point of the solvent carrying the sample. Injection must be rapid and no more than a very few, usuahy no more than two, microliters may be injected. Cool on-column injection is the most accurate and reproducible injection technique for capihary chromatography, but it is the most difficult to automate. 

Figure 13.7 Selectivity effected by employing different step gradients in the coupled-column RPLC analysis of a surface water containing 0.40 p-g 1 bentazone, by using direct sample injection (2.00 ml). Clean-up volumes, (a), (c) and (d) 4.65 ml of M-1, and (b) 3.75 ml of M-1 transfer volumes, (a), (c) and (d), 0.50 ml of M-1, and (b), 0.40 ml of M-1. The displayed cliromatograms start after clean-up on the first column. Reprinted from Journal of Chromatography, A 644, E. A. Hogendoom et al, Coupled-column reversed-phase liquid chromatography-UV analyser for the determination of polar pesticides in water , pp. 307-314, copyright 1993, with permission from Elsevier Science.

Figure 13.10 LC-LC chromatogram of a surface water sample spiked at 2 p.g 1 with ati azine, and its metabolites (registered at 220 nm). Conditions volume of sample injected, 2 ml clean-up time, 2.60 min ti ansfer time, 4.2 min The blank was subtracted. Peak identification is as follows 1, DIA 2, HA 3, DEA 4, atrazine. Reprinted from Journal of Chromatography, A 778, F. Hernandez et al, New method for the rapid detemiination of triazine herbicides and some of thek main metabolites in water by using coupled-column liquid cliromatography and large volume injection , pp. 171-181, copyright 1997, with permission from Elsevier Science.

A flow scheme for the basic form of ion chromatography is shown in Fig. 7.3, which illustrates the requirements for simple anion analysis. The instrumentation used in IC does not differ significantly from that used in HPLC and the reader is referred to Chapter 8 for details of the types of pump and sample injection system employed. A brief account is given here, however, of the nature of the separator and suppressor columns and of the detectors used in ion chromatography. 

Inman, E. L. and Tenbarge, H. J., High-low chromatography estimating impurities in HPLC using a pair of sample injections, /. Chromatogr. Sci., 26, 89,... 

Many of the classical techniques used in the preparation of samples for chromatography are labour-intensive, cumbersome, and prone to sample loss caused by multistep manual manipulations. During the past few years, miniaturisation has become a dominant trend in analytical chemistry. At the same time, work in GC and UPLC has focused on improved injection techniques and on increasing speed, sensitivity and efficiency. Separation times for both techniques are now measured in minutes. Miniaturised sample preparation techniques in combination with state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation result in faster analysis, higher sample throughput, lower solvent consumption, less manpower in sample preparation, while maintaining or even improving limits. 

Figure 7.5 Schematic representation of a coupled SFE-HPLC system employing a recirculating extraction manifold interfaced to HPLC via a sample injection valve. After Lynch [54]. Reprinted from T. Lynch, in Chromatography in the Petroleum Industry (E.R. Adlard, ed.), J. Chromatography Library, 56, 269-303, Copyright (1995), with permission from Elsevier...

Once into the 21st century, hyphenated instrumentation (i.e., those that couple two instruments together) became prevalent in laboratories. This is the combination of two or more, often different, instruments. In simple terms, the purpose is to first separate the analyte of interest and then to identify it. This takes place using a sample injected into the combined instruments. The most common of the hyphenated instruments is the gas chromatograph, the output of which is fed into a mass spectrometer to produce a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [35],... 

Figure 7.5 Schematic diagram of a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. The solvent(s) are pumped through the system, and the sample injected just before the column where separation occurs. Detection is often by UV/visible spectrophotometry at a fixed wavelength.

Compare HPLC with GC in terms of (a) the force that moves the mobile phase through the stationary phase, (b) the nature of the mobile phase, (c) how the stationary phase is held in place, (d) what types of chromatography are applicable, (e) application of vapor pressure concepts, (f) sample injection, (g) mechanisms of separation, (h) detection systems, (i) recording systems, and (j) data obtained. 

A guard column is a short, less-expensive liquid chromatography column that is placed ahead of the analytical column in an HPLC system. The purpose of a guard column is to adsorb and retain mixture components that would contaminate the more expensive analytical column. In-line filters are relatively coarse filters (compared to prefilters) placed in the mobile phase line to filter out particulates that maybe introduced on-line, such as from sample injection. 

High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) (Chapter 30) gives an elaborate discussion of theoretical aspects. Instrumentation encompasses the various important components e.g., solvent reservoir and degassing system pressure, flow and temperature pumps and sample injection system ... 

Assay of the reaction mixture. A 50 /iL sample was removed from the reaction and the dichloromethane component was evaporated under nitrogen for 20 s. The sample was then resuspended in 600 /iL isopropanol and assayed by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography. A 250 mm x 4.6 mm Chiralpak AD-H column was used with an eluant of 85 15 heptane/ethanol, a flow rate of 3 mL min a temperature of 10 °C, a detection wavelength of 245 nm and a sample injection volume of 2 fL. 

This chapter focuses on gas-liquid chromatography, in which compounds in a sample are separated based on vapor pressures and differences in affinity for the stationary phase (a high boiling point liquid) versus the gaseous mobile phase. The time between sample injection and detection of the individual compound eluting from the column is called the retention time. Compounds that have limited solubility in the stationary phase will exit the column quickly as a large proportion will remain in the mobile phase. Compounds with polarity similar to that of the stationary phase will have longer retention times and potentially broader peaks, due to increased interaction with the stationary phase. 

As long as the boundary and initial conditions remain unchanged, the band profiles on the reduced time and length scale depend only on the column efficiency. The conventional boundary and initial conditions for all modes of chromatography state that (1) the column is equilibrated with the mobile phase prior to the beginning of the separation (2) the sample is then injected as a rectangular pulse and (3) the separation proceeds as required by the specific mode selected. The amount of sample injected is determined by the volume and the concentration of the feed injected. As long as we avoid serious volume overload, the actual values of these two parameters are immaterial. Only their product, i.e., the amount injected, will influence the band profile. 

Accordingly, two major parameters affect the band profiles in nonlinear chromatography the column efficiency, and the amount of sample injected or loading factor. Parameter F (phase ratio) depends on the total porosity of the packing and cannot be changed in practice. 

TMA, its N-oxide and related aliphatic amines like methylamine and dimethylamine in urine may be quantified using head-space gas chromatography [28] or direct injection of the head-space gas into the gas sample injection port of a mass spectrometer [27]. These methods take advantage of the volatility of the amines and evaluate the amine-rich head-space gas generated above the sample by direct injection. The... 

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