Advertisement

PTV 50µl CH2Cl2 injection vs liner+pre-column activity

Discussions about GC and other "gas phase" separation techniques.

7 posts Page 1 of 1
Hello,

For the analysis of both pesticides and PAH's we are using a single liq-liq extraction using CH2Cl2 as extraction solvent.
10ml of CH2Cl2 is added to 150ml of sample in a 150ml Duran bottle. This is put on an agitator for 5 min. The solvent can than be easily transferd to a test tube by using a glass serological pipette. The solvent is than dried by adding Na2SO4 and vortexing. After centrifugation 1ml of the dried solvent is transferd into 2 separate vials to be analysed on a Thermo Trace GC - TSQ for pesticides and on an agilent 7890a -QQQ for PAHs.

on Thermo:
50µL CH2Cl2 at once injection on a large volume liner with sintered glass beads.
max. PTV temp: 320°C for 20 min

On Agilent:
50µl CH2Cl2 speed controled on a glass-beads + glass wool liner
max. PTV temp: 300°C for 5min

Both systems have a 5m siltek deactivated pre-column.

Problem is that both systems are being troubled by rapid loss of inertion. On Thermo we can perform about 200-250 injections (= about 3-4 runs) before changing the pre-column (liner will last about 100 inj), on Agilent it takes only 5-10 injections to ruin the liner and cause bad chromatografical separation of critical compounds.

As a drinking water company we are mainly testing tabwater and ground water. The amount of surface water is a lot smaller and most of these are fairly clean. So this should not stress the system to much.

* Is in your opion the CH2Cl2 to blame for the rapid loss of inertion? We are injecting 50µl but of course most of the solvent is blown off through the split-valve.
* Is there an other GC-compatible solvent suited for extracting both pesticides and PAH? (extra difficulty is the lack of air-conditioning in our lab. Temp can rise up to 30°c )

I hope you can help us.

Kind regards
BMU
May I ask...what is your begin temperature of your PTV?
And of your Oven?

When doing LVI injections, you need to blow of the solvent at 20°C below the boiling point of solvent.
For DCM this means about 20°C...Under normal condition, it takes a long time to get to this temperature.
So I assume, you use a CO2 or LN2 cooling for your PTV?

Are the liners and beads deactived?
DCM will not affect the deactivation.
Both type of liners are deactivated. We do not clean and re-use them.

Thermo: PTV start temp: 50°C oven: 40°C
Agilent: PTV start temp: 35°C (peltier cooled) oven: 50°C

On thermo we are unable to reach a lower PTV start temp within a reasonable time, since we don't have an active way of cooling it.
Instead we are counting on the cooling effect of the solvent evaporating.
100 samples per liner and 250 per pre-column is reasonable, the problem is with the Agilent. Have you tried the obvious experiment of setting the PTV temperatures and times to the same values on both machines ?

Peter
Peter Apps
On the Agilent system al GC parameters were 'set to optimum' by the firm who supplied the instrument.
it is one of our more recent purchases and we still have to develop a bit of a feel for it.

It will be near impossible to set the Agilent parameters according to the Thermo since the Agilent liner is A LOT smaller than the one used in the Thermo GC. Injecting 50µl at once will over flow the liner.
We can try to mimic the injection of the Agilent on the Thermo but problem there is that we can't cool the Thermo PTV.
On the Agilent system al GC parameters were 'set to optimum' by the firm who supplied the instrument.
it is one of our more recent purchases and we still have to develop a bit of a feel for it.

It will be near impossible to set the Agilent parameters according to the Thermo since the Agilent liner is A LOT smaller than the one used in the Thermo GC. Injecting 50µl at once will over flow the liner.
We can try to mimic the injection of the Agilent on the Thermo but problem there is that we can't cool the Thermo PTV.
So change what you can change - set the maximum on the Agilent to 320C for 20 min.

Peter
Peter Apps
we'll try.
thx to all for the advise
7 posts Page 1 of 1

Who is online

In total there are 32 users online :: 1 registered, 0 hidden and 31 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 5108 on Wed Nov 05, 2025 8:51 pm

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 31 guests

Latest Blog Posts from Separation Science

Separation Science offers free learning from the experts covering methods, applications, webinars, eSeminars, videos, tutorials for users of liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, sample preparation and related analytical techniques.

Subscribe to our eNewsletter with daily, weekly or monthly updates: Food & Beverage, Environmental, (Bio)Pharmaceutical, Bioclinical, Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry.

Liquid Chromatography

Gas Chromatography

Mass Spectrometry