Compehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) and its applicability to the characterization of complex (petrochemical) mixtures

A deep learning-based simulator for comprehensive two-dimensional GC applications

Among the main approaches for predicting the spatial positions of eluates in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography, the still under-explored computational models based on deep learning algorithms emerge as robust and reliable options due to their high adaptability to the structure and complexity of the data. In this work, an open-source program based on deep neural networks was developed to optimize chromatographic methods and simulate operating conditions outside the laboratory. The deep neural networks models were fit to convenient experimental predictors, resulting in scaled losses (mean squared error) equivalent to 0.006 (relative average deviation = 8.56%, R2  = 0.9202) and 0.014 (relative average deviation = 1.67%, R2  = 0.8009) in the prediction of the first- and second-dimension retention times, respectively. Good compliance was observed for the main chemical classes, such as environmental contaminants: volatile, semivolatile organic compounds, and pesticides; biochemistry molecules: amino acids and lipids; pharmaceutical industry and personal care products and residues: drugs and metabolites; among others. On the other hand, there is a need for continuous database updates to predict retention times of less common compounds accurately. Thus, forming a collaborative database is proposed, gathering voluntary findings from other users.

The 2023 Lifetime Achievement and Emerging Leader in Chromatography Awards

Peter Schoenmakers and Emanuela Gionfriddo are the winners of the 16th annual LCGC Lifetime Achievement and Emerging Leader in Chromatography Awards, respectively. The LCGC Awards honor the work of leading separation scientists for lifetime achievement and emerging potential. The award winners will be honored in an oral symposium at the Pittcon 2023 conference in March 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Modeling the GCxGC Elution Patterns of a Hydrocarbon Structure Library To Innovate Environmental Risk Assessments of Petroleum Substances

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) offers unrivaled separation of petroleum substances, which can contain thousands of constituents or more. However, interpreting substance compositions from GCxGC data is costly and requires expertise. To facilitate environmental risk assessments, industries provide aggregated compositional information known as "hydrocarbon blocks" (HCBs), but these proprietary methods do not transparently associate the HCBs with GCxGC chromatogram data. These obstacles frustrate efforts to study the environmental risks of petroleum substances and associated environmental samples. To address this problem, we developed a GCxGC elution model for user-defined petroleum substance compositions. We calibrated the elution model to experimental GCxGC retention times of 56 known hydrocarbons by fitting three tunable model parameters to two candidate instrument methods. With the calibrated model, we simulated retention times for a library of 15,447-15,455 hydrocarbon structures (plus 40-48 predicted as chromatographically unretained) spanning 11 classes of petroleum substance constituents in the C₁₀-C₃₀ range. The resulting simulation data reveal that GCxGC retention times are quantitatively associated with hydrocarbon class and carbon number information throughout the GCxGC chromatogram. These innovations enable the development of transparent and efficient technical methods to investigate the chemical compositions and environmental properties of petroleum substances, including in environmental and lab-weathered samples.

Trends in the management of waste tyres and recent experimental approaches in the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from rubber crumbs

The health and environmental consciousness of waste tires has increased tremendously over the years. This has motivated efforts to develop secondary applications that will utilize tire when they reach the end of their life cycle and limit their disposal in landfills. Among the applications of waste tires which are discussed in this review, the use of rubber crumbs in artificial turf fields has gained worldwide attention and is increasing annually. However, there are serious concerns regarding chemicals that are used in the manufacturing process of tires, which ultimately end up in rubber crumbs. Chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals which are found in rubber crumbs have been identified as harmful to human health and the environment. This review paper is intended to highlight some of the methods which have been used to manage waste tire; it also looks at chemicals/materials used in tire compounding which are identified as possible carcinogenic.

Translation of a One-Dimensional to a Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Method with Dual-Channel Detection for Volatile Organic Compound Measurement in Forensic Applications

After its introduction in the early 1990s, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) has evolved from a separation science research tool to the central component of many industries. Despite the maturity of the technique, some fields remain reluctant to its use in routine applications. In the case of forensic science, some constraints are the strict requirements enforced in forensic laboratories and the time and effort that must be invested for intralaboratory method validation. Concerns may also arise about whether information could be lost when transitioning to a new technique. This study reports on a method translation from conventional one-dimensional (1D) GC to GC×GC, ensuring the integrity of data as conversion is made. The GC was retrofitted with a reverse fill/flush (RFF) flow modulator and equipped with dual-channel detection using a quadrupole mass spectrometer (qMS) and a flame ionization detector (FID). The parallel use of two detectors, where qMS was applied for qualitative identification and FID for quantification, allowed higher flows and slightly wider peaks to be exploited for the analysis of a volatile organic compound (VOC) reference mixture relevant to forensic VOC profiling. Peak quality assessment and calibration curves using GC-qMS and GC×GC-qMS/FID document the transfer and adaptation of the original method without a loss in data quality. Furthermore, the preprocessing and the data analysis processing steps, including calibration and peak quality assessment for each of the three data sets, are explained in detail. This information provides benchmark data for routine laboratories that want to implement a GC×GC approach into routine workflows.

Recent applications of chemometrics in one- and two-dimensional chromatography

The proliferation of increasingly more sophisticated analytical separation systems, often incorporating increasingly more powerful detection techniques, such as high-resolution mass spectrometry, causes an urgent need for highly efficient data-analysis and optimization strategies. This is especially true for comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography applied to the separation of very complex samples. In this contribution, the requirement for chemometric tools is explained and the latest developments in approaches for (pre-)processing and analyzing data arising from one- and two-dimensional chromatography systems are reviewed. The final part of this review focuses on the application of chemometrics for method development and optimization.

Uniformity and Sensitivity Improvements in Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Using Flame Ionization Detection with Post-Column Reaction

A 3D-printed microreactor for post-column reactions was successfully integrated with comprehensive two -dimensional  gas chromatography. A two-stage post-column reaction provided a carbon-independent response, enhanced the flame ionization detection uniformity, and improved the detector sensitivity. These enhancements are critical to overcome challenges in analyses using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and flame ionization detection, which aim to separate and quantify multiple components. Post-column reaction flame ionization detection eliminated the requirement of multilevel and multicompound calibration, it enabled the determination of target analytes with a single-carbon-containing calibration compound with an accuracy of ±10%, and it improved the sensitivity for compounds that were not efficiently ionized by flame ionization detection. Extra column band-broadening caused by the incorporation of the 3D-printed microreactor was minimized using optimized reactor operating parameters and intercolumn connectivity. Chromatographic fidelity was in the practical domain of comprehensive 2D gas chromatography. Typical peak widths at half-height using the described approach ranged from 165 to 235 ms for probe compounds with retention factors spanning 5 < k < 40.

Selective and comprehensive analysis of organohalogen compounds by GC × GC-HRTofMS and MS/MS

Thousands of organohalogen compounds, including hazardous chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs), were selectively and simultaneously detected and identified with simple, or no, purification from environmental sample extracts by using several advanced methods. The methods used were software extraction from two-dimensional gas chromatography-high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-HRTofMS) data, measurement by negative chemical ionization with HRTofMS, and neutral loss scanning (NLS) with GC × GC-MS/MS. Global and selective detection of organochlorines and bromines in environmental samples such as sediments and fly ash was achieved by NLS using GC × GC-MS/MS (QQQ), with the expected losses of ³⁵Cl and ⁷⁹Br. We confirmed that negative chemical ionization was effective for sensitive and selective ionization of organohalogens, even using GC × GC-HRTofMS. The 2D total ion chromatograms obtained by using negative chemical ionization and selective extraction of organohalogens using original software from data measured by electron impact ionization were very similar; the software thus functioned well to extract organohalogens. Combining measurements made by using these different methods will help to detect organohalogens selectively and globally. However, to compare the data obtained by individual measurements, the retention times of the peaks on the 2D chromatograms need to match.

Sniffing out the hypoxia volatile metabolic signature of Aspergillus fumigatus

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening infectious disease caused by fungi from the genus Aspergillus, with an associated mortality as high as 90% in certain populations. IA-associated pulmonary lesions are characteristically depleted in oxygen relative to normal lung tissue, and it has been shown that the most common causal agent of IA, Aspergillus fumigatus, must respond to low-oxygen environments for pathogenesis and disease progression. Previous studies have demonstrated marked alterations to the Aspergillus fumigatus transcriptome in response to low-oxygen environments that induce a 'hypoxia response'. Consequently, we hypothesized that these transcriptomic changes would alter the volatile metabolome and generate a volatile hypoxia signature. In the present study, we analyzed the volatile molecules produced by A. fumigatus in both oxygen replete (normoxia) and depleted (hypoxia) environments via headspace solid-phase micro-extraction coupled to two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Using the machine learning algorithm random forest, we identified 19 volatile molecules that were discriminatory between the four growth conditions assessed in this study (i.e., early hypoxia (1 h), late hypoxia (8 h), early normoxia (1 h), and late normoxia (8 h)), as well as a set of 19 that were discriminatory between late hypoxia cultures and all other growth conditions in aggregate. Nine molecules were common to both comparisons, while the remaining 20 were specific to only one of two. We assigned putative identifications to 13 molecules, of which six were most highly abundant in late hypoxia cultures. Previously acquired transcriptomic data identified putative biochemical pathways induced in hypoxia conditions that plausibly account for the production of a subset of these molecules, including 2,3-butanedione and 3-hydroxy-2-butanone. These two molecules may represent a novel hypoxia fitness pathway in A. fumigatus, and could be useful in the detection of hypoxia-associated A. fumigatus lesions that develop in established IA infections.

Expanding the Klebsiella pneumoniae volatile metabolome using advanced analytical instrumentation for the detection of novel metabolites

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to identify the volatile molecules produced by the pathogenic Gram-negative bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 13883) during in vitro growth using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS).

METHODS AND RESULTS

Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 13883 was incubated in lysogeny broth to mid-exponential and stationary growth phases. Headspace volatile molecules from culture supernatants were concentrated using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and analysed via GC×GC-TOFMS. Ninety-two K. pneumoniae-associated volatile molecules were detected, of which 78 (85%) were detected at both phases of growth and 14 (15%) were detected at either mid-exponential or stationary growth phases.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has increased the total number of reported K. pneumoniae-associated volatile molecules from 77 to 150, demonstrating the sensitivity and resolution achieved by employing GC×GC-TOFMS for the analysis of bacterial headspace volatiles.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

This study represents an early-stage comprehensive volatile metabolomic analysis of an opportunistic bacterial pathogen. Characterizing the volatile molecules produced by K. pneumoniae during in vitro growth could provide us with a better understanding of this organisms' metabolism, an area that has not been extensively studied to date.

Comparative analysis of the volatile metabolomes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a nearly ubiquitous Gram-negative organism, well known to occupy a multitude of environmental niches and cause human infections at a variety of bodily sites, due to its metabolic flexibility, secondary to extensive genetic heterogeneity at the species level. Because of its dynamic metabolism and clinical importance, we sought to perform a comparative analysis on the volatile metabolome (the 'volatilome') produced by P. aeruginosa clinical isolates. In this study, we analyzed the headspace volatile molecules of 24 P. aeruginosa clinical isolates grown in vitro, using 2D gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC  ×  GC-TOFMS). We identified 391 non-redundant compounds that we associate with the growth and metabolism of P. aeruginosa (the 'pan-volatilome'). Of these, 70 were produced by all 24 isolates (the 'core volatilome'), 52 by only a single isolate, and the remaining 269 volatile molecules by a subset. Sixty-five of the detected compounds could be assigned putative compound identifications, of which 43 had not previously been associated with P. aeruginosa. Using the accessory volatile molecules, we determined the inter-strain variation in the metabolomes of these isolates, clustering strains by their metabotypes. Assessing the extent of metabolomic diversity in P. aeruginosa through an analysis of the volatile molecules that it produces is a critical next step in the identification of novel diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers.

In situ calibration of micro-photoionization detectors in a multi-dimensional micro-gas chromatography system

In situ calibration of PIDs in multi-dimensional GC.

Aquatic hazard and biodegradability of light and middle atmospheric distillate petroleum streams

Light and middle atmospheric distillate petroleum substances are blended to produce fuels used in transportation and heating. These substances represent the majority by volume of crude oil refined products in the United States. The goal of this research was to develop biodegradability and aquatic toxicity data for four substances; heavy, straight-run naphtha (HSRN), hydro-desulfurized kerosene (HDK), hydro-cracked gas oil (HCGO), and catalytic-cracked gas oil (CCGO). Ready biodegradability tests demonstrated rapid and extensive microbial oxidation of these test substances, indicating a lack of persistence in the aquatic environment. Differences in biodegradation patterns reflected compositional differences in the constituent hydrocarbons. Results of aquatic toxicity tests on alga, cladocera, and fish demonstrated that toxicity was greatest for catalytic-cracked gas oil, which contained a high proportion of aromatic hydrocarbons. Aromatic hydrocarbons are more soluble, and hence more bioavailable, resulting in higher toxicity. When expressed on the basis of loading rates, acute toxicity values (LL/EL50) ranged between 0.3 and 5.5 mg L(-1) for all three species, while chronic no-observed-effect loading rates (NOELR) ranged between 0.05 and 0.64 mg L(-1). PETROTOX estimates for acute and chronic toxicity ranged from 0.18 to 2.3 mg L(-1) and 0.06 to 0.14 mg L(-1), respectively, which were generally more conservative than experimental data.

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography under high outlet pressure conditions: a new approach to correct the flow-mismatch issue in the two dimensions

The typical column sets employed in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) suffer from the impossibility to fully exploit the efficiency of both dimensions simultaneously. Adding a restrictor at the end of the second dimension is a possible approach to adjust the linear velocity profile. Under these high outlet pressure conditions the second dimension becomes much slower while the effect on the primary column is limited. The gap in terms of optimum inlet pressures is thus reduced. A program written in Microsoft Excel was used to calculate the efficiencies of the two dimensions in GC × GC at different outlet pressures. A GC × GC set-up with a restrictor at the end of the second dimension column was successfully installed. Experiments proved that this is a possible way to have a better exploitation of the columns. The chromatograms obtained for a number of applications confirm that the separations achieved at elevated outlet pressure are more efficient than those obtained with the same column set under atmospheric outlet conditions. The price to pay is that the separations become considerably slower.

Smart multi-channel two-dimensional micro-gas chromatography for rapid workplace hazardous volatile organic compounds measurement

We developed a novel smart multi-channel two-dimensional (2-D) micro-gas chromatography (μGC) architecture that shows promise to significantly improve 2-D μGC performance. In the smart μGC design, a non-destructive on-column gas detector and a flow routing system are installed between the first dimensional separation column and multiple second dimensional separation columns. The effluent from the first dimensional column is monitored in real-time and decision is then made to route the effluent to one of the second dimensional columns for further separation. As compared to the conventional 2-D μGC, the greatest benefit of the smart multi-channel 2-D μGC architecture is the enhanced separation capability of the second dimensional column and hence the overall 2-D GC performance. All the second dimensional columns are independent of each other, and their coating, length, flow rate and temperature can be customized for best separation results. In particular, there is no more constraint on the upper limit of the second dimensional column length and separation time in our architecture. Such flexibility is critical when long second dimensional separation is needed for optimal gas analysis. In addition, the smart μGC is advantageous in terms of elimination of the power intensive thermal modulator, higher peak amplitude enhancement, simplified 2-D chromatogram re-construction and potential scalability to higher dimensional separation. In this paper, we first constructed a complete smart 1 × 2 channel 2-D μGC system, along with an algorithm for automated control/operation of the system. We then characterized and optimized this μGC system, and finally employed it in two important applications that highlight its uniqueness and advantages, i.e., analysis of 31 workplace hazardous volatile organic compounds, and rapid detection and identification of target gas analytes from interference background.

Bacterial volatile discovery using solid phase microextraction and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Bacteria produce unique volatile mixtures that could be used to identify infectious agents to the species, and possibly the strain level. However, due to the immense variety of human pathogens, and the close relatedness of some of these bacteria, the robust identification of the bacterium based on its volatile metabolome is likely to require a large number of volatile compounds for each species. We applied comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) to the identification of the headspace volatiles of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 grown for 24 h in lysogeny broth. This is the first reported use of GC×GC-TOFMS for the characterization of bacterial headspace volatiles. The analytical purity that is afforded by this chromatographic method facilitated the identification of 28 new P. aeruginosa-derived volatiles, nearly doubling the list of volatiles for this species.