Fast Separation on Microelectromechanical System-based Semi-packed Gas Chromatography Wavy Column

A 200-cm-long, 300 mu m-depth and 80 mu m-wide gas chromatographic (GC) column was fabricated on the silicon chip by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technique in this work. Unlike the traditional open gas chromatographic column, the design and fabrication of the MEMS-based GC column folded in a wavy configuration which was filled with a circular micro column with a diameter of 30 mu m. The size, shape and distribution of the semi-packed column in the prepared micro. chromatographic column were analyzed by finite element analysis software to obtain the optimized preparation parameters. The simulation revealed that MEMS-based semi-packed gas chromatography wavy column achieved an even flow velocity, resulting in a successive improvement of the flow uniformity at the zones between two adjacent bends, as well as a more nonsymmetric distribution at the bends. Benzene and toluene were separated by the fabricated GC column within 1.5 min. In addition, the N-alkane component were separated and the plate number reached 4790 plates/m.