Exploration of New Low-Pressure GC Columns for Food and Environment Emerging Contaminants

The Low-Pressure GC (LPGC technique) has been successfully used in the past for pesticide residues’ analysis. However, the technique is very versatile, and it allows for other applications, especially if different column phases are used. So far, the majority of the applications have been using the “5”-type phase (95% dimethylpolysiloxane, 5% diphenyl polymer). To expand on the previous applications, four additional column phases were selected (cyanopropylphenyl dimethylpolysiloxane; 50% dimethylsiloxane, 50% diphenyl; 65% dimethylsiloxane, 35% diphenyl; and trifluoropropylmethyl polysiloxane phases) to analyze various food and environmental contaminants, such as nitrosamines, alkylfurans, phthalates, arylamines and fluorotelomer alcohols. The LPGC techniques provided significant reduction in run times (up to 3.3x faster runs) and helium consumption reduction (up to 81% less helium used), while keeping an acceptable resolution.