Miniaturized systems for gas chromatography: Developments in sample preparation and instrumentation

An important field of research is the miniaturization of analytical systems for laboratory applications and on-field analysis. In particular, gas chromatography (GC) has benefited from the recent advances in en-abling technologies like photolithography, micromachining, hot embossing, and 3D-printing to improve sampling and sample preparation, microcolumn technologies, and detection. In this article, the develop-ments and applications reported since 2015 were reviewed and summarized. Important applications us-ing benchtop instruments, portable GCs, and micro-GCs (mu GCs) were showcased to illustrate the current challenges associated with each miniaturized interfaces and systems. For instance, portable instruments need to be energy-efficient and ideally depend on renewable sources for carrier gas generation. Lastly, multidimensional separations were addressed using miniaturized systems to effectively improve the peak capacity of portable systems. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.