Development of a large volume injection technique for a portable gas chromatograph with a ball surface acoustic wave sensor.
The Review of scientific instruments February 1, 2026 Takamitsu Iwaya, Koya Yamawaki, Shingo Akao et al.
A large volume injection technique was developed for portable gas chromatographs, enabling liquid sample analysis with volumes up to 50 μl without loss of analyte. Using a compact device with a spherical surface acoustic wave sensor, linear response to sample volume was confirmed with linear alkanes. For drug analysis, a detection limit of about 23 ng/ml for a hallucinogen simulant in urine was achieved, well below the 250 ng/ml cutoff for MDMA. A correlation between sensor response and retention index was also found, suggesting potential for quantitative analysis.