Estimation of retention times of homologous series in temperature programmed gas chromatography

Abstract

It is shown how to estimate the retention times of homologous series members in linear temperature programmed gas chromatography with the aid of a spread-sheet. Both the ease of estimation and the accuracy of the estimation depend on whether the homologue is eluted during the rising portion of the temperature program or the hold time at the end, and also on whether the homologous series is eluted from one injection or a number of injections. When all members of the series elute in the one chromatographic run the percentage standard deviation of the predicted retention times from the experimental retention times is 0.1. When members of the series elute in different chromatographic runs, the percentage standard deviation of predicted times from experimental times is 0.6, compared with an experimental percentage standard deviation for replicates of 0.5.