Make Productivity Happen
Make Productivity Happen
Increase your GC operating time without missing a peak
Did you know…
- Components along your GC flow path interact with your injected sample?
- Surface activity in the flow path causes analyte adsorbtion and eventual buildup—resulting in the need for maintenance?
- Even the smallest active surface along the GC flow path can cause a peak to go missing?
How the GC flow path impacts instrument performance
Hover over each number to see the flow path component. Click the number to learn more.
- Gas Clean filter
- Gas Clean sensor
- Ultra Inert inlet liners
- Inert flow path split/splitless inlet
- Ultra Inert gold seals
- UltiMetal Plus flexible metal ferrules
- Inert capillary flow technology
- J&W GC column
- J&W GC column smart key
- Self tightening column nut
- FID/NPD Jets
- Inert ion source
- IDP-3 oil-free vacuum pump
Agilent inert flow path solutions ensure the inertness of every surface that touches your sample so you can:
- Achieve parts-per-billion—or parts-per-trillion—detection levels that today’s analyses demand.
- Process more samples before needing maintenance.
- Ensure accurate and reproducible results.
Gas Clean filter
Installing an Agilent Gas Clean filter removes contaminants, ensuring highest quality, leak-free gas flow through the system while maintaining flow path inertness and column integrity. Highly sensitive indicators provide maximum instrument protection.
EICs (32 m/z) for O2 showing a comparison of balloon grade (99.99%) He (with and without a Gas Clean filter) and higher grade (>99.995 %) He (without filter). Using a carrier gas filter with balloon grade He dropped the O2 abundance to levels lower than the higher grade He (>99.995%) without a filter.
Gas Clean sensor
(available for the 8890 and 8860 GC systems)
- Monitors the chemical indicators, alerting you through the touch screen and software when a filter is saturated and needs replacing
- Replacing the filters when they have reached absorption capacity ensures maximum protection of the GC inert flow path and GC columns
Ultra Inert inlet liners
Agilent Ultra Inert inlet liners, with or without glass wool, are certified to provide low surface activity and highly reproducible sample vaporization. These liners facilitate best-in-class delivery for active analytes.
Using glass wool can trap nonvolatiles and extend column lifetime. But improperly deactivated liners and glass wool can result in loss of analytes due to active sites.
Inert flow path split/splitless inlet
Portions of the split/splitless inlet that come in contact with the sample undergo the same proprietary deactivation treatment as the Ultra Inert gold seals and UltiMetal flexible ferrules to provide a continuous inert surface throughout the flow path.
Ultra Inert gold seals
Ultra Inert gold inlet seals are manufactured by applying Ultra Inert chemistry on top of gold plating. This process reduces active analyte adsorption while ensuring a leak-free seal.
UltiMetal Plus flexible metal ferrules
Agilent UltiMetal Plus flexible metal ferrules are the only ferrules with a deactivated surface that maintains the inertness of the GC flow path—critical for the detection of trace analytes.
Inert capillary flow technology (CFT)
Inert CFT provides increased GC system flexibility while making reliable, leak-free, capillary connections.
- Purged ultimate unions enable backflushing of high boilers in heavy matrix samples, eliminating the need for postrun column bakeout—shortening run times and extending column life
- Flow splitters and Deans Switch facilitate the use of multiple detectors, peak cutting, and multidimensional GC analysis for increased resolution of trace compounds in complex matrices
Ultra Inert GC column
GC column inertness is critical as these columns contribute toward the largest surface area within the flow path. Every Agilent J&W Ultra Inert GC column is rigorously tested to ensure consistently high inertness and low bleed, for optimal delivery of analytes to the detector.
Drugs of abuse overlay 500 ppb
Complete flow path comparison
If only 10 sample molecules are injected on a system that has 10 reactive sites, 100 % of them could be lost to the reactive sites in the system. The end result: even though reactive analytes of interest are injected, they will never be detected if they are lost on reactive sites in the GC flow path. The impact of “nondetects” can be profound.
Agilent J&W column smart key
(available for the 8890 GC system)
Smart ID keys provide information on column, configuration, age, number of injections, use, and temperature limits. Default parameters for configuration minimize error and facilitate easy method development.
Self tightening column nut
While not directly part of the GC flow path, Agilent Self Tightening columns nuts provide a leak-free connection. Their innovative spring-driven piston continuously presses against the ferrule, maintaining a leak-free seal—critical to the integrity of the GC flow path.
FID/NPD jets
The new detector jets:
- Enable easier column installation and jet replacement, reducing the risk of column damage
- Do not have thread lubricant, reducing the risk of contamination
- Are made of stronger material, reducing the risk of deforming, galling, bending defects
- Universally fit all GC platforms, and both capillary column and packed column detector body
Inert ion source
Analyte breakdown products can be indicative of active sites in the detector, which can compromise data. An inert ion source ensures the integrity of your analytes reaching the detector. In addition, the Agilent JetClean self-cleaning ion source utilizes carefully controlled hydrogen flow to further reduce or prevent contamination buildup, significantly extending the maintenance-free operation time periods.
Inert ion source
Stainless-steel ion source
IDP-3 oil-free vacuum pump
While the IDP-3 oil-free vacuum pump is not directly part of the GC flow path, it ensures reliable performance of the MS detector—critical for accurate reproducible results. Agilent IDP-3 pumps are oil-free, providing a quieter and cleaner laboratory environment compared to standard oil rotary vane pumps.
How much is GC maintenance costing your lab in lost revenue?
Have you ever considered how much time your lab spends trimming or changing columns and replacing liners? Did you ever wonder how much it all costs in terms of revenue? Use this interactive PDF to calculate your cost of GC column and liner maintenance—and your return on investment for using Ultra Inert columns and liners. Calculate your savings
On-demand webinars
Application notes
Read how the Agilent inert flow path enables confident analysis of active compounds, trace-level samples, and unknowns.
Evaluation of the Ultra Inert Liner Deactivation for Active Compounds Analysis by GC
Read nowAgilent Inert Flow Path Enhancements: Impact on Semivolatile Analysis
Read nowForensic Analysis of Drugs of Abuse with the Agilent 8890 GC
Read nowAnalysis of Distilled Spirits Using an Agilent 8890 Gas Chromatograph System
Read nowAgilent CrossLab: real insight, real outcomes
CrossLab goes beyond instrumentation to bring you services, consumables, and lab-wide resource management. So your lab can improve efficiency, optimize operations, increase instrument uptime, develop user skills, and more. Learn more