Determination of retention indices in constant inlet pressure mode and conversion among different column temperature conditions in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography.

A method to determine the second dimensional real retention time, dead times on both dimensions and retention indices in constant inlet pressure mode was developed in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. At the same time, the conversion of GC x GC retention indices among different column temperature conditions were also conducted based on some thermodynamics parameters. The calculation accuracies are better than 1.0 retention index unit. Furthermore, a retention index database was developed and used to identify the compounds in a cigarette essential oil sample. It showed that identification by the database was of close agreement with by time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and some isomers could also be distinguished based on the retention index database.