The paper describes the basic technology for GCxGC, and how results for the 2D method are generated. Because it is a review rather than original research, it presents the new technology in context, and describes how it has been applied to a range of selected applications areas, giving a reasonably comprehensive account of the key areas to which it has been applied.

Perhaps the significance of this review is not so much anything that is revealed in the review, but the inherent value offered by an improved analysis that is the justification for the review—in this case aided by improved resolution—to the study of complex volatile samples. After many years of trying to push single column GC (and GC/MS) to the limits for characterization of mixtures—a limit that essentially has been reached—this new approach has the potential to solve separation problems and sample characterization in ways previously not thought possible. The review was probably the right review at the right time to attract the attention of researchers in this area.

We developed a cryogenic modulation system that operates by using a longitudinally moving cryotrap (in the mid-1990s), which was able to trap and very rapidly remobilize GC peaks as they traveled along a capillary GC column. We originally intended this to be used as a way to handle multidimensional heartcut zones in GC, but very soon realized that it would have great utility as a modulation method in the GCxGC technique, and so we pioneered the use of cryogenic methods in this area. Our group has published about 35% of the research papers that have appeared on GCxGC, studying both fundamental principles and applications. We are now developing a range of other technologies that use GCxGC approaches but in more of a traditional multidimensional manner, combined with fast MS methods. It has been a fascinating journey to be able to explore new methods very early in their development, and seeing them become accepted within the general GC community.