Silicon-micromachined gas chromatographic columns for the development of portable detection device

We report the fabrication of a gas chromatographic column module integrated on a silicon substrate and usable as a portable measurement device dedicated to the selective detection of various chemical compounds (gas or vapour). pdms,peg,and f13-teos stationary phases have been prepared in order to coat the inside walls of microchannels. the microcolumn tests were performed with a mixture of hydrocarbons and ketone. after having evaluated the effectiveness of such a separation module,we showed an application by coupling a gc microcolumn with a metal oxide-based gas sensor. the best results were obtained at a low isothermal temperature mode of the gc micro-column (near the ambient temperature). the coupling between the gc microcolumn and a metal oxide gas sensor enables to obtain a rapid,reliable,and selective analysis of various chemical compounds. copyright © 2010 jean-baptiste sanchez et al.