Through our research, we have endea

Through our research, we have endeavoured to introduce many new GC systems that we believe can – or may – have some role in improving chemical analysis (in this case for volatile chemical samples) - i.e. to provide relevant solutions to the complex analytical problems that face both researchers and industrial technologists. This is aimed at pushing the boundaries of classical analysis, and finding new
approaches that have not been possible or thought of. The only arbiter as to whether our innovations are successful at delivering new capability, is through the uptake of our – or similar methods – in research and industrial analysis. It is interesting to contemplate whether a new conceptual approach – even if publishable – meets the ultimate goal of being truly relevant to contemporary analysis, and by extension, how useful innovation in chemical analysis ultimately proves to be!

Recently we have developed a new capability for MDGC as shown in Figure 4 (see ref 188). In this case, the aim was to provide a system that combined high resolution volatile sample separation with an additional dimension of identification – namely NMR. This study was prompted by the work shown in Figure 3, since whilst we might have been able to obtain a MS result for the aroma compound here, this does not constitute adequate identification. We have to throw more spectroscopy at the problem. But we have to start with best possible separation!