An object of the present invention is to provide a sample trapping method and a sample trapping apparatus. The present invention is suitable, for example, for analysis by a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. A sample is not cooled by a refrigerant such as liquid nitrogen in the present invention. Instead, a cold storage refrigerator such as a Stirling refrigerator or a Gifford-McMahon refrigerator is used. As a result, the operability is improved and the running cost is reduced. In addition, a refrigerant pipe is not used in the present invention. It is thus possible to reduce the size and weight of the apparatus, to improve the efficiency and accuracy for cooling the sample, and to rapidly cool the sample. Furthermore, it is possible to rapidly heat the sample. As a result, the trapped sample is instantaneously desorbed. Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to achieve cryofocusing in gas chromatography (particularly in high-speed gas chromatography).
Solutions of the present invention include a sample trapping method using a sample conduit for trapping a gas sample by cooling or desorbing the gas sample by heating. The solutions further include cooling a sample conduit (17) by arranging the sample conduit (17) in the vicinity of, or bringing the sample conduit (17) into contact with, a cooling part of a cooling device (20) based on a cold storage refrigerator.