ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the on-line coupling of liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) with emphasis on the more recent use of micro-LC columns in the multidimensional chromatography utilizing capillary GC columns as the secondary separation mode. The first application of multidimensional LC-GC utilizing' micro-columns and reversed-phase eluents was described in 1985. In a well-designed micro-LC system, the chromatographic reproducibility is comparable to that obtained in a conventional LC system. The use of a microcolumn for LC offers a desirable approach, helping to overcome some of the problems associated with the introduction of the large volumes into a capillary GC. Recent advances in the preparation and use of microcolumns have made the multidimensional approach feasible. Continued research in microcolumn technology and the interface performance and design may be expected to produce further improvements in this interesting area of the chemical analysis.
