Effects of temperature and flow regulated carbon dioxide cooling in longitudinally modulated cryogenic systems for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

Two different modes of temperature regulation in longitudinally modulated cryogenic systems (LMCSs) for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) were compared. Carbon dioxide was used as coolant. In the first mode of operation, the temperature of the trap was regulated to a pre-set temperature using a digital temperature controller (“the constant temperature mode”). In the second, the temperature was regulated to a fixed negative offset to the oven temperature by using a constant flow of CO2 (“the constant flow mode”). A number of problems were occasionally observed using the constant temperature mode: (1) severe band broadening of high boiling analytes in the second dimension; (2) non-Gaussian reconstructed first-dimension peak profiles; (3) high background due to modulation of first-dimension column bleed. It was concluded that these problems were associated with inefficient solute remobilization at low LMCS trap temperatures (1 and 2) or large trap temperature fluctuations (3). These problems could be avoided or significantly reduced by using the constant flow mode. Best results were obtained as the trap temperature was kept about 70 °C below the oven temperature.