Study on the Correction Factor in the Determination of Fatty Acid Composition by a Gas Chromatograph with a Thermal Conductivity Detector

Abstract

Collaborative analyses were carried out to examine the effect of application of the correction factors on the determination of fatty acid composition by gas chromatograph with thermal conductivity detector. The appropriate use of the correction factors gave a good result, that is, the corrected value approached closely to the known values and the interlaboratory scattering was considerably decreased. It was observed that the correction factor was affected by the operating conditions and the fatty acid composition of the reference mixture as well as by the number of carbon atoms in the methyl ester. Accordingly, for the precise determination it is recommended to apply the correction factors which have been determined not only by analysing a reference mixture having a similar composition to that of an unknown but by using the same instrument under the same operating conditions as those for the analysis of the unknown.