Thermal Desorption Applications and Reference Materials

What do you want to analyze?

View application notes on Arson, Air (Pollution, Airplane, Automobile, Vacuum Pumps), Beverages (Carbonated, Milk, Wine, Coffee), Carpet, Chewing Gum, Clothing, Cologne/Perfume, Cooking Oils, Explosives, Flowers, Food Packaging, Plastic Wraps, Fruit (Blueberry, Peaches, Cranberries), Electronic Components, Paint (Latex, Oil-base), Soil, PCB, PNA, Food (Spices, Pepper, Tea, Honey, Mushrooms, Rice, Truffle Oil), Plants, Pharmaceuticals, Printer Toner, Tires, Full List (60+).

Short Path Thermal Desorption Techniques

• Direct Thermal Extraction - Analysis of low moisture solid matrix samples by thermally extracting the volatile and semi-volatile organics directly from the solid matrix without the use of solvents or other sample preparation. A fast, efficient method for analyzing solid samples. Direct Thermal Extraction application notes describe the analysis of Food and Pharmaceutical Packaging, Plastics and Food Products.
• Air Sampling - Analysis of indoor and outdoor air by trapping the volatile organics in air on an adsorbent trap and then using the thermal desorption system to desorb the organics into the GC for analysis. See our application notes on air inside Airplanes and Restaurants.
• Dynamic Headspace Purging - Analysis of the volatile organics from large solid or liquid samples, such as vegetation, arson analysis, flowers and growing plants using adsorbent traps to trap the volatiles for subsequent thermal desorption analysis. See the Headspace application notes and application notes on Arson analysis, Flowers and Pear Tree Leaves.
• Purge and Trap - The purging of volatiles from liquid samples using clean carrier gases, trapping the volatiles on adsorbent resins traps for analysis via the thermal desorption system. Purge&Trap Application Notes include Cola Beverages, Wines, Milk, Olive Oil and Paints.
• Purge and Trap of Solid Samples - Clean carrier gas is used to purge the volatiles from solid matrix samples, trapping the organics on an adsorbent resins trap for analysis via the thermal desorption system. Purge&Trap Application notes include the analysis of wood, soil, peaches and food products.
• Direct Analysis of Liquid Samples - Liquid samples such as oils or perfumes can be directly injected into adsorbent resin traps. The samples can be subsequently thermally desorbed into the GC for analysis. Either the high or low volatiles can be selectively prevented from entering the GC with this technique. An application of this technique is the analysis of the volatiles in Olive oils.
• Quantification - All the above techniques can be used to quantitate the volatiles in these samples. The preferred technique is to use deuterated internal standards for these methods. Several application notes are available describing the quantification of BHT in Food Products, Naphthalene in Pharmaceuticals, and volatiles in beverages and commercial carpeting.

Areas of Application

• Environmental - Analysis of the Volatiles in Air, Water and Soil.
• Food Science Applications - Analysis of the volatiles in beverages, spices, olive oil, wines, mushrooms, peaches, cranberries, coffee and milk.
• Flavor and Fragrance - The analysis of flavors and fragrances in Food Products, perfumes, flowers and colognes have been studied with this technique.
• Pharmaceuticals - The analysis of residual solvents in pharmaceuticals is an excellent application of the Direct Thermal Extraction Technique in which volatiles are thermally extracted directly from solid pharmaceutical samples without the use of solvents or other sample preparation.
• Forensic - In addition the arson analysis of crime scene evidence, thermal desorption has been used for the analysis of residual volatiles in street drugs, comparison of plastics and the analysis of stains on forensic evidence.
• Packaging Materials - The direct thermal extraction technique is a very efficient method for the analysis of the residual volatiles and surface contamination of plastics and packaging materials for the food and pharmaceutical industries. With the increased use of recycled plastics this technique will prove invaluable for the analysis of these samples.
• Synthetic Fibers and Plastics - The direct thermal extraction technique is a very efficient method for the analysis of the residual volatiles and surface contamination of plastics. Several application notes are available.

Applications Notes

• Elimination of Memory Peaks from Thermal Desorption
  A feature article describing sources of GC contamination. This article fully describes methods to minimize or eliminate GC and Thermal desorption system background noise or peaks. Many users often blame Tenax® adsorbent resins for background peaks in GC Thermal Desorption applications. However our studies have shown this background does not normally originate from the Tenax but from the GC injection port and capillary column. Utilizing a high temperature flow conditioning of the GC injection port as well as proper care and maintenance of the GC and thermal desorption system background peaks can be minimized.
• Selection and Use of Adsorbent Resins for Purge and Trap Thermal Desorption Appliations
  This article can help you determine which adsorbent resins to use for your application. This paper describes the parameters which must be considered when selecting an adsorbent resin for n application. Breakthrough volume charts are included for hydrocarbons and alcohols on a wide range of organics. A unique Breakthrough Volume Histogram Chart has been developed to enable you to quickly and easily select the resin required for your application.
• Adsorbent Resins
  A complete collection of SIS publications on adsorbent resins, breakthrough volumes, selection of resins, conditioning of desorption tubes and much more.