Agilent Direct Injection of Fish Oil for the GC-ECD Analysis of PCBs: Results Using a Deans Switch With Backflushing Manual

Update: 28 September, 2023

A Deans switch, employing Agilent's Capillary Flow Technology, was configured on an Agilent 7890A gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with dual electron capture detectors (ECDs). A method was developed for the analysis of fish oil for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination. The Deans switch was used to heart cut 7 indicator PCBs (IUPAC congeners 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, and 180) from the primary DB-XLB column onto a DB-200 column for further separation. Fish oil from a supplement capsule was simply diluted 1:10 in isooctane and injected directly. In a separate experiment, the fish oil was analyzed by GC with a flame ionization detector (GC/FID) without backflushing. From these analyses, it was estimated that about two-thirds of the fish oil components would remain on the column after the 17.4-minute GC/ECD run. To prevent carryover, contamination, and retention time shifts, the Deans switch was used to backflush the primary column at the end of each run. Evidence shows that backflushing removed the fish oil residue, which otherwise would quickly degrade the chromatography.


File format: PDF

Size: -

MD5 Checksum: 5B1F55D74A60688B66326549AB69A459

Publication date: 12 June, 2012

Downloads: -

PDF Link: Agilent Direct Injection of Fish Oil for the GC-ECD Analysis of PCBs: Results Using a Deans Switch With Backflushing Manual PDF

Also Manuals