The use of predicted boiling points for the identification of halobenzenes and substituted phenols in capillary gas chromatography

Quantitative correlations between physicochemical parameters and structure of various solutes and their gas chromatographic behavior were investigated in order to predict the retention values. The identification of unknown samples in gas chromatographic routine analysis of environmental samples is enhanced by the use of these correlations in conjuction with other chromatographic methods and with mass spectrometry. The boiling points of many compounds are easily found in literature and therefore their correlation with retention values obtained in isothermal or programmed temperature analysis permit restriction of the choice of names of unknown compound to within a narrow range. The correlation between the boiling points and the retention times of chloro- and bromo-benzenes and of some chloro- and nitro- substituted phenols was investigated on non-polar capillary columns and permitted the tentative identification of many compounds belonging to these homologous series.