Miniaturized gas chromatography module with micro posts embedded MEMS column for the separation of exhaled breath gas mixtures

摘要

Gas chromatography (GC) is a reliable chemical analysis technique that is used to separate and identify the gas components, and it is extensively utilized for the breath gas analysis. Miniaturizing GC column using Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques is an inevitable step in achieving micro total analysis systems (μTAS) or lab-on-a-chip devices. This paper reports the fabrication and performance of a miniaturized gas chromatography module with micro posts embedded MEMS column. The MEMS-based GC column, fabricated on a 2 cm × 2 cm size μ-GC chip and coated with non-polar stationary phase, was 1.3 m long, 150 μm wide, and 400 μm deep and contain embedded micro circular posts which are 30 μm diameter. The basic separation performance of the developed μ-GC module was evaluated using a commercial flame ionization detector (FID) for light alkanes (C1-C6) gas mixtures, and the chromatographic results for separation of six alkanes mixture showed good resolution and retention of the compounds with entire separation achieved in less than 2 min.