Multidimensional Gas Chromatography: Fundamental Advances and New Applications

Multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC) is a technique for isolating and identifying volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds present in complex mixtures. MDGC separations employ two or more gas chromatographic separations in a sequential fashion. The separation produced by each stage is maintained, at least in part, so that the resolving power of the composite separation exceeds that of the individual stages. Although MDGC has been in existence for more than 50 years, each year brings improvements and insights that allow a wider range of samples to be analyzed with more informative, higher-resolution separations. This review summarizes the advances and applications of MDGC that have been described in nearly 200 articles published between January 2011 and November 2012. The vast majority of MDGC separations use two columns and so they are classified as two-dimensional gas chromatography (2-D GC). These separations frequently fall into one of two categories: heart-cutting 2-D GC or comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC). While these two techniques use similar hardware, they are implemented in very different ways. Heart-cutting 2-D GC is a more mature technology than GC x GC and as a result there have been far fewer research articles in the past two years devoted to heart cutting 2-D GC. This review examines studies aimed at improving the materials and methods used for conducting MDGC separations. Recent applications of MDGC in a wide range of fields are also considered.