Detector technologies for comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography

The detector is an integral and important part of any chromatographic system. The chromatographic peak profiles ( i. e. peak separation) should, ideally, be unaffected by the detector – it should only provide the sensing capacity required at the end of a column separation process. The relatively new technique of comprehensive 2‐D GC (GC×GC) extends the performance of GC manyfold, but comes at a price – existing GC systems may not be adequately designed with the requirements of GC×GC in mind. This is primarily the need for precise measurement of very fast peaks entering the detector ( e. g. as fast as 50 ms basewidth in some instances). The capacity of the detector to closely track a rapidly changing chromatographic peak profile depends on a number of factors, such as design of flow paths and make‐up gas introduction, type of detector response mechanism, and the chemistry of the response. These factors are discussed here as a means to appreciate the technical demands of detection in GC×GC. The MS detector will not be included in this review.