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Congratulations to the colleague and good luck in your interesting work!

 

Gas chromatography (GC) is one of the most popular chemical analytical methods in the world. GC is able to analyse complex mixtures of volatile substances, to determine the purity of these substances and to determine the concentration of different gases in the mixture. Today, the technique is often used in a wide range of applications, from analysing foodstuffs, identifying pesticides or studying the composition of pharmaceuticals, to monitoring air pollution and even detecting drugs in the body.

 

"Although GC is an old and much improved technique, there is still room for improvement. Increasingly stringent safety and quality requirements are driving the search for new ways to increase the sensitivity, resolution or speed of chromatography," says Audrius. 

 

 

The scientist's goal was to develop and test a prototype instrument based on the analyte cryo-concentration technique. What does this mean?

 

"During my thesis, my colleagues and I explored ways to improve certain aspects of gas chromatography. In the end, we decided to develop an external module that could be used with a commercially available gas chromatograph, thereby improving the sensitivity of the system.

 

The module freezes the chemical compounds injected into the chromatograph, thereby accumulating (concentrating) them inside. This allows multiple injections to be made, allowing more of the desired analyte (the component to be detected in the sample) to be introduced into the system and increasing the sensitivity of the system," explains A. Sadaunykas.

 

He has succeeded in developing two prototypes of the module and has increased the sensitivity of the GC system by up to 20 times. The module has been tested in practical applications such as the analysis of fungicides (chemicals used to kill fungi that cause plant diseases).

 

The new PhD hopes that this instrument will make gas chromatographic analysis cheaper and of higher quality.