I have a liquid sample containing water(around 70%) and rest is acrolein, glycerol, acetaldehyde. how can i detect them? I mean which GC column should be perfect for it?
I have attached an article on GC of aqueous samples. Acrolein and acetaldehyde should show up without much problem. But glycerol will be tricky. First, it has very low volatility. It boils at 290C. But it will also start decomposing, mainly to acrolein, at this temperature. That will generate poor chromatography with a connection of the glycerol peak to the acrolein peak. You could derivatize the glycerol but that will take extra time and effort. There may be better choices of separation methods (HPLC) for your mixture. Have you considered other techniques?
Hello Amit, if you want to use an HPLC based detection, there are amine-based columns available (they are popularly called carbohydrate columns). However, you need to ensure that you have the correct detector available for detection. I believe, the best one would be a RI (Refractive Index) detector. As far as the use of GC for detection goes, the best way is to go for derivatization, followed by extraction prior to injecting in GC (this is not as cumbersome as it may sound!). Once in organic phase, DB-5 column should be able to separate it in GC.