Capillary gas chromatography of hydrocarbon mixtures containing alkanes and alkenes, selective olefin stripping applied to very diluted samples

An original subtraction method was developed to distinguish between alkanes and alkenes in a complex hydrocarbon mixture. The method described is very fast, inexpensive and requires only 100-200 mul of sample. Its steps include bromination of the olefins and adsorption on a silica gel column followed by gas chromatography. Examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method in practice. The results are compared with those obtained from catalytic hydrogenation.