Complex mixture quantification without calibration using gas chromatography and a comprehensive carbon reactor in conjunction with flame ionization detection

Abstract

Quantification of complex carbon-containing mixtures is typically a very time-intensive task with regards to the calibration process. A gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector yields strong responses to organic compounds and provides a wide linear range over many orders of magnitude; however, responses for highly functionalized and heteroatom-containing compounds can be variable. Here, a commercial Polyarc microreactor unit, placed before the flame ionization detector, was investigated as a means of normalizing carbon response across all compounds. The device includes two catalytic reaction chambers, ultimately converting all carbon atoms to methane evenly for flame ionization detection. Three groups of different complex mixtures from n-alkane to terpene and polymer mixtures were analyzed to evaluate the potential for calibration-free quantitation of the new detector arrangement. We have obtained accurate quantification results without time-consuming calibration processes. The quantification of a terpene mixture and a polymer mixture confirms the ability of the detector for analyzing samples that either have complex physical or structural properties or wide concentration range. In summary, compared to other detectors, this methanizer - flame ionization detection system provides a simplified workflow, which can eliminate calibration steps and increase throughput.

Sequential Hydrothermal Processing of Sewage Sludge to Produce Low Nitrogen Biocrude

“…For identification, the Agilent deconvolution was applied. A Polyarc ® micro-reactor (Activated Research Company, Eden Prairie, MN, USA) was installed before the FID detector to enable a direct quantification of identified compounds [36]. For each compound class, a representing compound was chosen: phenol for cyclic-O, valerolactam and skatol for cyclic-N, hexadecanol for aliphatic-O, and hexadecanamide for aliphatic-N was chosen and previously confirmed by the retention time with the pure standard chemical.…”

Quantification of 23 Volatile Organic Compounds with a Single Reference Material Using Post-column Reaction Gas Chromatography Combined with a Stainless-steel Heating Furnace

“…1 Recently, a post-column reaction system, which converts the analytes' carbons to methane via carbon dioxide (CO2) by using oxidation and reduction catalysts (the settable maximum reaction temperature is 400 C at the conventional system), followed by the detection of methane with FID, was developed and used with gas chromatography (post-column reaction GC). [2][3][4][5][6] Because this system can detect all of the carbons in any compound such as methane, ideally, its FID responses more strictly reflect the number of carbons than conventional FID ones. Thus, this technique is emerging as a reliable and convenient strategy for quantifying various types of organic compounds containing not only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but also nitrogen and sulfur.…”

Metal 3D‐printed catalytic jet and flame ionization detection for in situ trace carbon oxides analysis by gas chromatography

“…Analytical devices based on this approach, known as the “methanizer”, have been made commercially available for many decades both as a stand‐alone or integrated chromatographic tool by various instrument manufacturers . Recent advances in this field involved the development of a two‐stage post‐column reaction system that combined combustion chemistry with methanation chemistry resulting in a hybrid “methanizer” with substantially improved overall robustness, performance, and expanded capabilities .…”