High performance hand-held gas chromatograph
Gas chromatography is a prominent technique for separating complex gases and then analyzing the relative quantities of the separate components. This analytical technique is popular with scientists in a wide range of applications, including environmental restoration for air and water pollution, and chemical and biological analysis. Today the analytical instrumentation community is to working towards moving the analysis away from the laboratory to the point of origin of the sample (''the field'') to achieve real-time data collection and lower analysis costs. The Microtechnology Center of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has developed a hand-held, real-time detection gas chromatograph (GC) through Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) technology. The total weight of this GC is approximately 8 pounds, and it measures 8 inches by 5 inches by 3 inches. It consumes approximately 12 watts of electrical power and has a response time on the order of 2 minutes. The current detector is a glow discharge detector with a sensitivity of parts per billion. The average retention time is about 30 to 45 seconds. Under optimum conditions, the calculated effective plate number is 40,000. The separation column in the portable GC is fabricated completely on silicon wafers. Silicon is a good thermal conductor and provides rapid heating and cooling of the column. The operational temperature can be as high as 350 degrees Celsius. The GC system is capable of rapid column temperature ramping and cooling operations. These are especially important for organic and biological analyses in the GC applications.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15005151
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-130439-REV-1; TRN: US200414%%630
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9th International Conference, Amelia Island, FL (US), 01/21/2001--01/24/2001; Other Information: PBD: 10 Jan 2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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