Preface

In the 1940s, Martin and Synge invented partition chromatography, laying the foundation for gas chromatography. Nowadays, the theory of chromatography and its basic principles are well described in the literature. Gas chromatography is probably one of the main techniques used in laboratories worldwide. Over the last several decades, researchers have pushed the limits of this technique by developing new procedures for the separation of components of systems found in biomedical or petrochemical industries. Inverse gas chromatography, a variation of conventional gas chromatography, was developed for the characterization of polymers, glass and carbon fibers, coal, and solid foods. In this technique, the material under investigation is placed in the chromatographic column and numerous probes are injected to provide information on the polarity or the surface of the sample.

This book includes contributions from experts in different domains. It beings with a chapter devoted to the identification and the validation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) resulting from various diseases. It summarizes important technological advancements used to pre-concentrate and analyze VOCs. The next chapter describes recent advances in the analysis of Cannabis sativa L. by gas chromatography. The chapter includes two studies in which the thermal decomposition of analytes occurs during gas chromatography separation. Another chapter gives insight into the analysis of the reactive transport process occurring during the analysis of heavy oil hydrocarbons inside a high-temperature gas chromatography column. It also deals with those interrelated physicochemical processes generated by the application of a thermo-hydro-chemical (THC)-coupled multiphysics approach. The final chapter presents a thermodynamic model based on physico-chemical parameters measured using inverse gas chromatography.

This book is designed for those who have some acquaintance with gas chromatography, although we believe that it will be useful for beginners as well. Four chapters are devoted to specific techniques used in the medical and petrochemical industries.

> **Fabrice Mutelet** University of Lorraine, Nancy, France

## **Chapter 1**

## Introductory Chapter: Recent Advances in Gas Chromatography

*Fabrice Mutelet*

## **1. Introduction**

Gas chromatography (GC) is one of the most widely used techniques for the characterization, the separation and the quantification of complex systems. Researchers have pushed the limits of this technique by coming up with new methods for the preparation of samples and by using and/or coupling new families of columns. This last decade, the hyphenated technique coupling GC or GC-MS and a spectroscopic technique was developed [1]. These combinations of technologies have been used for qualitative but also quantitative studies of complex systems [2–5]. Multidimensional gas chromatography was also proposed for the analysis of complex fluids found in food, petroleum, and pharmaceutical industries [6–8]. It is now well established that comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) is an efficient technique for fast pyrolysis bio-oil analysis [9], petroleum fluids [10], or characterization of flavonoid composition in food [11].

In gas chromatography, different approaches can be considered depending on the nature of the sample. Samples containing light compounds or moderate volatility can be studied using the classical approach. It means by the injection of the samples in the apparatus. For heavy compounds with low volatility, inverse gas chromatography (IGC) is preferred to characterize the samples. In IGC, the sample becomes the stationary phase. Both approaches do not give the same information, while IGC will give information on the interaction between a solute injected and the stationary phase or on the partition coefficient of the solute in the stationary phase, GC allows the quantification of components in the sample.

This last decade, new stationary phases based on ionic liquids or deep eutectic solvents were investigated due to their specific selectivity [12–16]. Numerous approaches were proposed to classify stationary phases [17]. Among others, Kovats index [18] and solvation models [19–22] are the most popular to represent the polar character of the stationary phases. All retention data related to Gibbs-free energy may be expressed using solvation models. Parameters from the linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) model can be estimated *via* gas chromatography. This approach was strongly used to develop relationship between physicochemical properties and LSER parameters [15, 23, 24].

In this book, state of the art of gas chromatography and new developments and applications are presented. New sample preparation techniques and hyphenated techniques are presented. The behavior and the characteristics of new stationary phases based on ionic liquids are also described. Then, theoretical approaches developed to predict the behavior of solutes with stationary phases are detailed.

## **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

## **Author details**

Fabrice Mutelet Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

\*Address all correspondence to: fabrice.mutelet@univ-lorraine.fr

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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## **Chapter 2**
