**Author details**

C2V Company released its first commercial micro-GC product (model C2V-200) in 2010. The platform, based on cartridges, allows hybrid integration of components such as sensors and valves to be assembled together with reduced dead volume. Integrated microchip technology combined with narrow bore capillary GC columns results in a higher performance for lower costs. The C2V-200 micro-GC is designed for ease of use, reduced maintenance, and low gas consumption. Exchangeable column cartridges, with integrated heating zones, can be easily installed (up to 4) with a different column and detection method. This modular setup allows the ability to monitor a wider spectrum of gas components in the same timeframe of 10 to

The concept of micro-gas chromatographs demonstrates the potential of mobile devices in various fields related to analytical chemistry such as oil and gas, air analyses, defense, food processing industry, etc. New instrument designs and component manufacturing methods are coming on line that will result in the development of a new generation of high-performance, moveable, and miniaturized instruments for high-performance gas chromatography (HP-GC). The use of microelectromechanical system technologies for the manufacturing of microfabricated gas chromatographic components results in very small, autonomous, and low-cost instruments. Completely autonomous GC instruments require no daily maintenance and can be placed in remote locations for long-term service. This requires battery operation, wireless communications, and freedom from tanks of compressed gases. To this end, work is in progress to develop a high-performance micro-GC that will have acceptable volume. To achieve complete autonomy, vacuum outlet GC should be used with ambient air as carrier gas. In addition, remote battery charging with radiofrequency transmission will be feasible. The use of ambient air as a carrier gas poses several challenges. First, some stationary phases rapidly decompose in air. Poly(ethylene glycol) is a good example. In addition, particulate material and water vapor may need to be removed. Sensor array detection also is needed because these devices can be microfabricated with very low dead volumes; they require no support gases for their operation, and they can be fabricated with a variety of selectivities, which can be used for vapor recognition and for the deconvolution of overlapping peaks. This can reduce the resolution requirements for the column. Sensors and detectors usually have lower sensitivity than detectors incorporated in laboratory gas chromatographic instruments. Low detector sensitivity, coupled with the very low concentrations often associated with air monitoring, requires the use of a preconcentrator for sample enrichment prior to separation and detection. More energy is then needed to heat the preconcentrator to release the adsorbed sample. It seems that one way to solve these problems is a future integration of the instrument on a single chip, focusing each device to one field of application instead to make universal

apparatus emulating conventional gas chromatographs.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

**Conflict of interest**

60 seconds [50].

164 MEMS Sensors - Design and Application

**7. Conclusion**

Imadeddine Azzouz1,2\* and Khaldoun Bachari1

