Gas chromatographic determination at the parts-per-million level of aliphatic amines in aqueous solution

Abstract Modifications of Sterling FT-G and Vulcan, which are two well-known examples oil graphitized carbon blacks (GCB) with suitable amounts of KOH and polyethylene glycols (PEG), e.g., PEG-20 M and PEG-1500, allow the linear elution of free aliphatic amines from C1 to C16 to be performed. In particular, because of the use of such packing materials, the quantitative determination of C1-C4 aliphatic amines in aqueous solution is made possible even at the sub-ppm level. At these high sensitivities, the sole factor affecting in some measure the quality of the chromatographic profile is due to the water disturbance. By varying the liquid-to-solid ratio, gas-liquid-solid (GLS) columns have been evaluated in terms of selectivity and elution time.