Amines and Solvents

Significance of the Topic

Accurate analysis of low–molecular-weight amines and common organic solvents is critical in industrial quality control, environmental monitoring and research. Active sites in conventional GC columns often lead to peak tailing, adsorption and poor reproducibility when measuring polar analytes such as amines. InertCap® for Amines columns, in combination with inert GC flow paths, mitigate these issues by providing highly deactivated surfaces, resulting in sharper peaks, improved sensitivity and reliable quantitation.

Objectives and Study Overview

This application note demonstrates the performance of an inert-capillary GC method for simultaneous separation and detection of thirteen volatile amines and solvents. The primary goals were:

• To achieve baseline separation of methanol, dimethylamine, ethanol, acetonitrile, acetone, 2-propanol, acetic acid, diethylamine, ethyl acetate, triethylamine, pyridine, N,N-dimethylformamide and toluene.
• To evaluate peak shape, retention time reproducibility and sensitivity using an InertCap for Amines column under optimized GC-FID conditions.

Methodology and Instrumentation

GC conditions were as follows:

• Column: InertCap® for Amines, 0.32 mm I.D. × 60 m (Cat. No. 1010-69269).
• Carrier Gas: Helium at 150 kPa constant pressure.
• Oven Program: 50 °C initial hold (3 min), ramp 10 °C/min to 220 °C, final hold 5 min.
• Injection: Split mode (1:50), sample volume 0.2 µL.
• Sample Matrix: 5000 mg/L N,N-dimethylformamide in dimethyl sulfoxide.
• Detector: Flame Ionization Detector (FID) at 250 °C.

Main Results and Discussion

The optimized method achieved complete separation of all thirteen analytes within a 22-minute run. Key findings include:

• Sharp, symmetrical peaks with minimal tailing for highly polar amines (e.g., dimethylamine, diethylamine, triethylamine).
• Reproducible retention times (RSD < 0.5 %) across replicate injections.
• Baseline resolution between structurally similar compounds such as ethanol and dimethylamine.
• Sufficient detector response for trace-level quantitation of volatile acids and solvents.

Benefits and Practical Applications

The presented GC-FID protocol offers:

• Enhanced reliability in quantifying trace amines and volatile solvents in pharmaceutical, petrochemical and environmental samples.
• Reduced maintenance and column conditioning time due to minimized active-site interactions.
• Compatibility with routine quality assurance and troubleshooting workflows in analytical laboratories.

Future Trends and Potential Applications

Emerging directions include:

• Integration of inert-capillary technology with mass spectrometric detectors for improved selectivity and structural confirmation.
• Development of shorter, higher-efficiency inert columns for ultra-fast GC analysis.
• Automated, online sampling systems enabling real-time monitoring of industrial emissions and process streams.

Conclusion

Using an InertCap® for Amines capillary column and inert GC flow path, this method delivers robust separation and quantitation of a broad panel of volatile amines and solvents. The approach addresses common challenges associated with analyte adsorption and peak tailing, ensuring high sensitivity, reproducibility and ease of operation for diverse analytical applications.

References

No external literature references were provided in the source material.