Design, Performance and Applicability of a Multi-Functional Thermal Desorption System for Trace Analysis in Capillary GC

App Note 1/1994

Thermal desorption is a well known technique for the analysis of volatile organic contaminants in air normally adsorbed on porous polymers and has been previously discussed [1]. This operation principle can also be adapted for the direct thermal desorption of volatiles in solid samples. In this paper the potential of a newly developed thermal desorption system for direct desorption and analysis of volatiles from liquid and solid samples is discussed and demonstrated. It will be shown that the combination of thermal desorption with an intermediate cryofocusing step in the inlet liner of a cooled injection system (CIS/PTV) is a reliable and fast method for the determination of volatiles within a wide boiling range.

[1] R. Bremer, A. Hoffmann and J.A. Rijks, Proceed. of the 14th Interntional Symposium on Capillary Chromatography, Baltimore, MD USA (1992), P. Sandra and M.L. Lee (ed.), 206-213. [2] I. Blankenhorn, D