The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 27, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 15, 1996
Michel Bertrand, Verdun, CA;
University of Montreal, , CA;
Abstract
A flow of a carrier gas through a column is provided. A sample is provided in the column, and a temperature of a longitudinally short portion of the column is raised to a predetermined controlled high temperature at which volatile substances are released from the sample packing and are carried by the carrier gas. The column is cooled on each side of the short portion to a low temperature at which the volatile substances condense or adsorb on the column packing. By continuously moving the heated short portion from an inlet end to an outlet end of the packing in a direction of carrier gas flow the volatile substances selected by the controlled high temperature are released. Four particularly useful and advantageous applications can be identified for the invention. Firstly, it provides an improved gas chromatograph (GC) injector. Secondly, it provides an improved thermal separator or extractor. Thirdly, it provides an efficient way to analyze target compounds suspected of being contained within a complex mixture by allowing for the GC analysis to be carried out only on those compounds or substances falling within the same or similar thermal desorption characteristics as those of the target compound. Lastly, by operating in a full time-coupled time-resolved (TCRC) mode, a complete three-dimensional analysis output can be obtained giving better power of separation of the analyzed sample, which is of particular importance when the substance to be analyzed is a complex organic material.