Recent work has illustrated that a moving thermal gradient along a column can cause peaks to elute closer together or farther apart depending on the slope of the moving gradient.  Thus, analytes with very similar retention times can be 'teased apart' by designing a gradient with a very shallow slope through a specific temperature range.  Steeper gradient slopes result in analytes spaced closer together.  Additionally, using a series of moving temperature gradients along shorter columns provides separations comparable to a single separation using conventional temperature programming.  Using these tools together, we can program the shape of sequential thermal gradients for improving resolution in a continuous sample paradigm.  Initial separations can be used to design the nonlinear thermal gradient profile for subsequent separations, increasing the number of resolved peaks.  We will report key statistics of separations including separation time, resolution and efficency resulting from this sequential programming of thermal gradients.

Programming gas chromatography resolution using moving thermal gradients and statistical feedback

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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