Analytical Sciences

Development of an Ultra-micro Sample Injector for Gas Chromatography Using an Ink-jet Microchip

Takahide NISHIYAMA,* Fumihiro ENDO,* Hiroko EGUCHI,* Tatsuro NAKAGAMA,* Nobuko SEINO,** Masaki SHINODA,** Takuya SHIMOSAKA,*** Toshiyuki HOBO,* and Katsumi UCHIYAMA*

*Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate Schools of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minamiohsawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
**Fine Technology Components Department, Tokyo Factory, Fuji Electric Systems Co., Ltd., 1 Fuji-machi, Hino, Tokyo 191-8502, Japan
***National Metrology Institute of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8563, Japan

An ultra-micro sample injector for gas chromatography (GC) was developed. An ink-jet microchip, originally used for industrial recorder, was modified at the edge near to an orifice, and fixed into the GC. In order to evaluate the characteristics of this injector, a sample injector and a thermal conductive detector (TCD) were connected directly, while water was used as the test sample. The volume of the droplet, the interval time and the back-pressure to the ink-jet microchip were investigated. Within the range of 1 - 5 nL volume injected sample, the TCD response according to the amount of the sample volume (the volume of one droplet from the ink-jet microchip was about 1 nL) was obtained. A good reproducibility of the peak area was obtained to be about 1.0% of the RSD value. In order to compare the injection method of the ink-jet chip with that using a micro-syringe, the method using the ink-jet chip could introduce 1/1000 of the amount of the sample and gave reproducible results.

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