High-speed capillary gas chromatography for determination of inhalation anesthetics

To increase sample throughput for GC analysis of inhalation anaesthetics without affecting the separation of nitrous oxide (N2O) and halogenated anaesthetics (sevoflurane, isoflurane and halothane), we explored the effectiveness of a tailor-shortened (12 m) PlotQ capillary column and developed a high-speed version of a previously reported GC technique (involving chromatographic separation of analytes using a GC–MS system, coupled with a selected ion monitoring (SIM) method to increase sensitivity). Efficient separation and repeatable results were achieved at a reduced runtime of ∼7 min (versus 18 min with the original method) at a carrier gas flow of 1.5 ml/min. This approach should more than double the previous throughput.