The Performance of Micro-Fabricated Gas Chromatographic Columns with Different Number of Serpentine Turns

Abstract

In this paper, the separation performance of two kinds of micro-fabricated gas chromatographic columns ($\mu\mathrm{GC}$-columns) with different numbers of serpentine turns, respectively 51 and 101, had been studied. These two kinds of $\mu\mathrm{GC}$-columns had the same inner structure, column length and stationary phase (alumina). The test results of C10 demonstrated that the $\mu \mathrm{GC}$-column with 51 serpentine turns had better the numbers of theoretical plates and shorter separation time compared with the 101 serpentine turns. Particularly, the improvement of number of theoretical plates of C10 could reach up to 251% at under 22.2 kPa inlet pressure, which contributed to less “race track effect” caused by less serpentine turns.