Construction of a thermodesorption injector for gas chromatography

A detailed description for the do-it-yourself construction of a high-performance thermodesorption GC injector (HPTI) is presented. The injector consists of a heated desorption chamber, a cooled loop for focusing the desorbed volatiles as well as a heating control for sample injection into the separation column. The gas flow is controlled by valve switching during the steps of the operation. Two versions of the injector function either for the injection of highly volatile compounds or for compounds with extremely low volatility, e.g. lubricants. The sophisticated gas flow management allows injection of highly concentrated samples without memory effects in a sample gas split mode, while traces may be injected with virtually 1:1 sample transfer. A wide range of adsorbents appropriate for the compounds can be chosen due to homemade adsorbent tubes and the achievability of high desorption temperature. Solutions may be injected from a carrier material after solvent evaporation. The HPTI fulfills all multipurpose GC injector requirements and with the support of downloadable instruction files can be built by anyone working with conventional GC devices.