Routine analytical methods employing mass spectral analysis on a gas chromatograph are often plagued with long run times in order to achieve acceptable separations. The Modular Accelerated Column Heater (MACH) System from GERSTEL is easily retrofitted to the Agilent 6890 GC with Mass Selective Detection. MACH is based on Low Thermal Mass (LTM) technology, that enables very fast temperature ramping and cooling, resulting in short cycle times and high sample throughput. Excellent linearity and precision in the analytical data is maintained, all performance gains are accomplished using conventional capillary columns, existing methods can be directly transferred and accelerated.
The MACH system is designed to allow two GC columns to be heated independently on the same GC, thus enabling independent optimization of temperature ramps for standard dual column confirmation applications. Furthermore, the system provides the flexibility needed to separate complex samples using inexpensive and efficient 2D heart cutting with different column phases on the one GC, as well as running two relative short columns, with different phases, independently heated in series to possibly allow very complicated chromatography to be run much faster.
Specific data will be reviewed illustrating performance when accelerating various environmental methods, with a focus on methods utilizing the Agilent 5975 MSD.
