Presented herein is a new concept of uniformly spin coating a flat surface with a stationary phase and creating a gas chromatography column by pressing a grooved lid, with micro-stamped ridges, down onto the coated substrate. The lids are molded out of commercially available rigid materials including epoxies so that when pressed onto a flat surface it will create an air tight seal. The epoxy material is rendered inert by a thin layer of gold.

The invention relates to a mass spectrometer, a mass spectrometry method and a detection system. The mass spectrometer includes a vacuum chamber having a working pressure being 0.1 Pa≤P≤10 Pa; a linear ion trap, arranged in the vacuum chamber, wherein a field radius r of the linear ion trap is r≤5 mm; and a power supply, configured to provide a radio-frequency voltage for the linear ion trap, a frequency f of the radio-frequency voltage being 2 MHz≤f≤10 MHz. Because a vacuum level is relatively low, this vacuum condition may be realized by selecting a roughing pump for evacuating; and compared with a combined pump unit which is generally selected by a traditional mass spectrometer using the linear ion trap and is composed of a turbo molecular pump and a roughing pump, the roughing pump has a lower pumping speed, smaller size and lower manufacturing cost.

A 3D gas chromatography (GC) column development is possible by assembly of two parts each being substrates formed by gas tight materials. One part may be a silicon substrate with a snake shaped flow channel structure and the other part may be a glass plate. Both are coated with a column packing comprising polubutadiene, which is also able to glue or bond both parts together, thereby sealing the flow channel, thus forming a GC column. The column packaging can be composed in all kinds of polarity from very hydrophobic till very hydrophilic. In this way the column packing can be tuned on resolution for particular molecules which are interesting to detect, e.g. Octane. The invention is advantageous for micro GC columns.

The present disclosure provides compositions, methods, and systems for identifying marked hydrocarbon fluids. These compositions, methods, and systems utilize a gas chromatography marker including a non-pyrrolidinone nitrogen-containing compound. The methods and systems can identify the presence or absence of the gas chromatography marker and/or the non-pyrrolidinone nitrogen-containing compound. The compositions, methods, and systems can optionally utilize a spectroscopic marker.

A combined analyzer includes a thermal analyzer, a trap, a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, a first flow path to which a gas generated in the thermal analyzer is supplied, a second flow path that branches from the first flow path and is connected to the mass spectrometer, a third flow path that branches from the first flow path and is connected to the trap, a fourth flow path that connects the trap and a column included in the gas chromatograph, and a fifth flow path that connects the column and the mass spectrometer.

A gas chromatography device for peak focusing of one or more target analytes is provided that include a chromatographic column with an inlet and an outlet. A stationary phase is deposited inside the chromatographic column and has a positive thickness gradient. The stationary phase extends from the inlet to the outlet and has a first thickness at the inlet of the chromatographic column and a second thickness at the outlet of the chromatographic column. The second thickness is at least about 10% greater than the first thickness. Methods of peak focusing in a gas chromatography device, method of verifying peak focusing in a gas chromatography device and creating a gas chromatography device having a chromatographic column with a positive thickness gradient are also provided.

Pressure-controlled splitting can be used to inject a chemical sample from an injection source to a detector (e.g., a mass spectrometer) for chemical analysis (e.g., gas chromatography or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) with reduced peak widths. For example, the sample is first transferred to a first compression volume; then pressure in the system is increased to compress the sample to split it between a second compression volume and a column. The fraction of the sample split to the column can have reduced peak widths compared to the peak widths prior to compression and splitting yet can maintain the same peak height to preserve high sensitivity for trace level analysis. This portion of the sample can traverse the column and elute to the detector for analysis with reduced chemical noise. Faster injection rates can allow faster analysis times, as less separation of chemicals is needed before the sample reaches the detector.

A quality control system analyzes the quality of a battery cell, with the battery cell defining a gas pouch configured to expand from a deflated configuration to an inflated configuration when filled with a gas formed during a cell formation process. The system comprises a computational system comprising a processor and a memory and a measurement instrument in electronic communication with the computational system. The measurement instrument is arranged to measure a distance defined by the gas pouch and transmit a signal to the computational system corresponding to the distance. The computational system is arranged to analyze the distance with the processor and determine a volumetric measurement of the gas within the gas pouch and compare the volumetric measurement to a threshold in the memory to assess a quality score for the battery cell. A corresponding method analyzes the quality of the battery cell with the quality control system.

A method of analyzing the quality of a battery cell includes performing a high-throughput quality check on the battery cell with a quality control system, assessing a quality score to the battery cell, with quality score identifying the battery cell as low-quality or high-quality, and performing a comprehensive quality check on the battery cell if identified as low-quality. The method further includes assessing an enhanced quality score to the battery cell superseding the quality score of the quality control system identifying the battery cell as confirmed low-quality or confirmed high-quality and providing revised production instructions for manufacturing successive battery cells if confirmed low-quality.

A gas sampler (30) is provided with a connection portion (C1) connectable to a sample tank (20), a sample loop (PL) for holding a sample gas introduced from the sample tank (20) to the connection portion (C1), pneumatic switching valves (V1 to V6) for switching a flow path connected to the sample loop (PL), a control piping (81) for transmitting a driving pressure to the switching valves (V1 to V6), a pump (31) for suctioning an inside of the sample loop (PL), and a pressure accumulation tank (80) for accumulating the pressure generated by the operation of the pump (31) as a source pressure.