Analysis of volatile organic compounds using cryogen-free thermal modulation based comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with quadrupole mass spectrometry.

•A novel single-channel GCxGC-qMS system using a solid-state modulator successfully separates target atmospheric VOCs from C2 to C12 without any cryogen use and channel switching activity.•A hybrid primary column composed of a PLOT part and a general mid-polar column exhibits improved separation performance for C2-C4 compounds in the first dimension.•Target and non-target analysis of real atmospheric samples from coal combustion and ambient air from an indutrial area are accomplished using this low-resource GCxGC-qMS system.