On-line combination of aqueous-sample preparation and capillary gas chromatography

Methods currently in use to combine the preparation of aqueous samples on-l ine with capillary gas chromatography (GC) comprise heartcut-orientated rev ersed-phase liquid chromatography-GC and analyte-isolation-orientated analy te extraction-GC. These approaches either use techniques in which water is directly introduced onto the GC column, or an indirect approach in which wa ter is eliminated, i.e., by solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextrac tion or liquid-liquid extraction, prior to introduction of the analytes ont o the GC column. The latter type of approach is much more successful and us er-friendly, and many applications have been reported. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.