Analysis of aromatic compounds in gasoline with flow-switching comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

A comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) instrument has been created by coupling a flow-switching modulator and a standard gas chromatograph. The instrument was used to characterize the aromatic composition of gasoline. The high-resolution separation produced by flow-switching GC × GC allowed gasoline aromatics to be fully resolved from saturated components. The aromatic compounds were further separated into groups having the same carbon number. A standard gasoline sample was analyzed to evaluate the quantitative accuracy and precision of this technique. The data show that flow-switching GC × GC produces results that are comparable to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and thermal modulation GC × GC. The simple, low-cost, and robust nature of flow-switching GC × GC makes it an ideal technique for the routine analysis of aromatic compounds in gasoline.