The Calculation of Peak Width in Iso-Temperature Gas Chromatography

Abstract

The relationship between natural logarithm of width factor (ln p´) and carbon number (n) can bedescribed by ln p´ = a˝ + b˝ n where a˝ and b˝ are constants. The linear regression squared (r²) for n-alkanes,fatty acid methyl esters and fatty alcohols are 0.9999, 0.9996 and 0.9997, respectively. This relationship wouldprovide a convenient method for forecasting the gas chromatographic peak widths of organic compounds in thesame homologous series with known identities at various iso-temperatures GC. In addition, the relationshipbetween ln p´ and natural logarithm of retention factor (ln k´) can be described by ln p´ = ln k´+C where C isconstant. The r² for n-alkanes is higher than 0.9990.

Keywords : Peak Width / Width Factor / Retention Factor / Gas Chromatography