Capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry: Current trends and perspectives

Since the advent of gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS), the evolution in high-performance GC-MS has boosted the quality and quantity of information. Continuing technical advances and topics of current focus are pushing GC-MS in areas such as metabolomics, biochemistry, medical analysis, and pharmacology, traditionally dominated by other separation techniques. Still, selection and optimization of sample preparation, analysis and data evaluation need to be carefully assessed to address the purpose of the analytical question, both in targeted and non-targeted approaches. In particular, studies on increasingly complex samples require sophisticated techniques. In this review, recent and significant advances in GC-MS are discussed, which includes a brief overview of challenges and limitations as well as solutions. Trends towards softer ionization techniques, high-resolution MS and multidimensionality further extend the analyte range in GC-MS. Especially, the implementation of standardized and streamlined workflows will enable the exploitation of the full potential of GC-MS in future. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.