SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM 44th ISCC

Significance of the Topic

The 44th International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography (ISCC), held 19–22 May 2026, convenes leading experts in separation science and allied detection technologies. The program highlights why advances in capillary and miniaturized separations, multidimensional chromatography, green sample preparation and high-resolution mass spectrometry matter for contemporary analytical challenges: they deliver higher sensitivity and selectivity, reduce environmental footprint, enable on-site and real‑time monitoring, and support complex applications in food safety, environmental monitoring, biopharmaceuticals, metabolomics and materials characterization.

Objectives and Overview of the Program

The meeting aims to present state-of-the-art developments across capillary GC and LC, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), multidimensional techniques (LC×LC, GC×GC), hyphenated high‑resolution mass spectrometry workflows, miniaturized and automated sample preparation, and emerging detectors and interfaces. Key objectives are to showcase technological innovations, discuss transferability and robustness of methods, evaluate greener workflows, and foster knowledge transfer through award lectures, vendor seminars and young scientist sessions.

• Main thematic tracks: capillary and nano-scale liquid chromatography, capillary gas chromatography, multidimensional separations, miniaturized sample preparation, hyphenated analytics (HRMS, ion mobility, TOF/Orbitrap), SFC, and electromigration techniques.
• Application domains emphasized: natural products and flavors, food contact materials, PFAS and VOCs, petrochemicals, metabolomics, oligonucleotide purification, environmental and clinical analyses.
• Special activities: awards presentations, vendor seminars, round-table on greenness of official methods, and dedicated young scientist sessions.

Methodology and Used Instrumentation

The program does not report a single study but provides a curated survey of methodologies and instrumentation trends. Representative techniques and equipment referenced across sessions include:

• Separation platforms: capillary GC, GC×GC (flow-modulated and other approaches), capillary and nano-HPLC, LC×LC, SFC and 2D‑SFC (including multiple heart‑cut operation), microbore and microfluidic LC, and capillary electrophoresis (CE) with cIEF and CE‑MS.
• Detectors and interfaces: flame ionization detection (FID) optimizations, GC‑VUV, GC‑combustion‑MS, GC‑CCAS (compound-specific isotope analysis), dielectric barrier discharge soft ionization, cold EI, supersic molecular beam interface, non-radioactive halogen‑selective detectors, and nanogravimetric detectors.
• Mass spectrometry: high‑resolution MS (Orbitrap, QTOF, (Q)TOF), SLIM‑QTOF, APGC and atmospheric‑pressure ionization sources, ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS/SLIM), LC‑LEI‑HRMS, HR‑ESI‑MS/MS, GC‑Orbitrap‑HRMS, and GC×GC‑TOF‑MS for comprehensive profiling.
• Sample preparation and front-end technologies: SPME, SBSE, thin‑film SPME, microextraction (centrifugation-assisted, magnetic beads), electromembrane extraction (EME), extractive-liquid sampling EI‑MS (E‑LEIMS), micro-SPE, monolithic capillary sorbents, nano‑ and mesoporous sorbents, and automated online SPE/sequential injection coupling.
• Supporting technologies: microfluidic modules, modular chip‑based SFC-MS, automated sequential derivatization, capillary monoliths, and nanofabricated (MEMS) chiral columns for specialized applications.

Main Results and Discussion (Program-Level Synthesis)

Rather than presenting empirical results, the symposium program reveals convergent directions across the field:

• Miniaturization and capillarization persist as prime strategies to increase sensitivity, reduce solvent use and enable new on-site modalities (portable capillary LC and field GC systems).
• Multidimensional separations (LC×LC, GC×GC, LC‑GC hybrids, and coupled SFC modalities) continue to expand capacity for highly complex matrices, enabling orthogonality and deeper chemical coverage for metabolomics, food authenticity and contaminant profiling.
• Integration with high‑resolution MS and IMS is crucial for confident compound identification, isotopic and structural information, and tracing transformation pathways in biological and environmental systems.
• Green analytical chemistry and sustainable sample preparation are central themes: replacement of toxic solvents, adoption of greener stationary/mobile phases, solvent‑saving injection strategies and metrics for method greenness are receiving systematic attention.
• Automation, transferability and robust method development (e.g., QSRR across column dimensions, modular microfluidics) are necessary to translate advanced separations into routine QA/QC and regulated environments.
• Data science and AI are maturing as enablers for metabolomics, untargeted profiling and autonomous data summarization, with sessions addressing machine learning workflows and spectral database development.

Benefits and Practical Applications

The technologies and methodological trends represented at the ISCC 44 program offer tangible benefits for practitioners:

• Enhanced sensitivity and selectivity improve trace-level detection of contaminants (PFAS, pesticides, MOSH/MOAH, fentanyl, volatile aroma compounds) for compliance and public health monitoring.
• Greener workflows and miniaturized sample preparation reduce solvent consumption, waste and hazards, aligning analytical practice with sustainability goals and regulatory pressure.
• Multidimensional separations and HRMS/IMS coupling enable comprehensive chemical characterization needed in metabolomics, biopharmaceutical impurity profiling and complex food matrices.
• Portable and rapid analytical systems permit on-site monitoring (air VOCs, biogenic VOCs, forensic and clinical screening), accelerating decision-making and field deployment.
• Improved hardware (low-bleed, inert GC columns; deactivated injection systems; high-inertness flow paths) benefits trace-level quantification and sample integrity across many applications.

Future Trends and Potential Applications

Program content points to several near- and mid-term developments likely to shape the field:

• Wider adoption of modular microfluidics and chip-based separations enabling plug-and-play multi-dimensional analysis and reduced dead volume coupling to MS.
• Integration of machine learning for automated feature extraction, anomaly detection and predictive retention modeling (QSRR) to streamline method transfer and compound identification.
• Expansion of green SFC and bio‑based solvent systems as mainstream alternatives to conventional organic mobile phases, particularly for preparative and semi-preparative separations.
• Stronger focus on harmonized greenness metrics and standardized protocols for evaluating environmental impact of sample preparation and separation methods.
• Advances in portable high-resolution mass spectrometry workflows and rapid sampling approaches to support near real-time environmental and food safety surveillance.
• Further convergence of orthogonal analytical platforms (GC‑Orbitrap, GC×GC‑TOF, LC‑IMS‑HRMS) to create comprehensive multi-platform fingerprinting pipelines for complex product and material characterization (e.g., food contact materials, plastics, bio‑oils).

Conclusion

The 44th ISCC program presents a coherent view of an analytical community focused on increasing chromatographic performance while reducing environmental footprint and improving applicability to real-world problems. The emphasis on miniaturization, multidimensionality, high‑resolution detection, greener sample preparation and AI-driven data analysis underlines a pragmatic trajectory: making advanced separations more sensitive, sustainable and transferable to routine laboratory and field use. The conference format — blending award lectures, vendor-led innovations, thematic roundtables and young scientist sessions — fosters cross-pollination that will accelerate implementation of these advances in research and industry.

References

No primary literature references are provided in the source program; the summary synthesizes topics and instrumentation mentioned in the ISCC 44 scientific program schedule.