Potential of Flow-Modulated 2D Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in Food Analysis
Peter Tranchida,
Associate Professor,
Universita di Messina
Although comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) has been on the scene for more than 25 years, it is still generally considered a relatively-novel technique and is yet far from being fully established. The revolutionary aspect of GC×GC, with respect to classical multidimensional chromatography, is that the entire sample is subjected to two distinct analytical separations. The resulting enhanced separating capacity makes this approach a prime choice when GC analysts are challenged with highly complex food mixtures. The combination of a third mass spectrometric dimension to a GC×GC system generates the most powerful analytical tool today for volatile and semi-volatile food analytes. The present contribution is focused on the combination of flow-modulated GC×GC with novel forms of mass spectrometry (in particular ultra-rapid scanning single and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry), for use in the field of food analysis. The high potential of three hyphenated analytical dimensions (GC×GC-MS), in both untargeted and pre-targeted experiments, will be illustrated and discussed.
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