GCxGC TOF-MS
The most advanced and versatile instrument in the lab is the LECO Pegasus-4D which is a GCxGC coupled to a time of flight mass spectrometer with immensely large capabilities of resolving and identifying the species in the test sample. It allows analytical resolution in four dimensions to obtain a complete sample analysis. The ChromaTOF software is used to analyze the data which allows obtaining two dimensional chromatographs from GCxGC which when coupled with time of flight mass spectrometer analysis allows for identification of unknown compounds while quantifying the known species.
The use of the LECO Pegasus-4D allows us to study formation of difficult to detect compounds like peroxides and oxygenates while tracking several components of the fuel separately over the temperature range of the experiment set. The classification of functional groups can be carried out to study the effect of each functional group in combustion related characteristics of the fuel.