Portable Micro-Gas Chromatography with Multidimensional Compound Identification Analysis
Files
TR Number
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Gas Chromatography (GC) is an analytical technique in the chemistry field widely used to separate compounds present in a sample mixture. Conventional GC systems are an extremely versatile and powerful tool to perform complex separations. However, these systems come with the cost of being bulky and requiring a high amount of power for operation. With considerable research for over 40 years, the advent of Micro-Gas Chromatography (µGC) made it possible for miniaturized, compact, low-power, and field portable GC systems. This thesis presents a portable µGC system that enables real-time analysis of complex compound separations, made possible with the use of multiple separation columns and a novel multidimensional compound identification algorithm. The system architecture and the software design with multiple features enabling portability of the µGC system are discussed. A set of microfabricated separation columns (µSCs) and photoionization detectors (PIDs) are integrated to realize a fully functional µGC system that is tested with different types of complex compound mixtures. An in-depth analysis of processing the output chromatograms obtained from the setup for signal filtering and peak detection is described in this thesis. A multidimensional analysis for compound identification in complex mixtures is presented.