Simultaneous determination of trace concentrations of saturated and α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in organic systems

A method for the simultaneous determination of trace concentrations of saturated and α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds in complex systems is presented. Carbonyl as the alkaline 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone is determined spectrophotometrically at 2 selected wavelengths of 480 and 426 nm. The apparent total carbonyl concentration is obtained from prepared calibration curves at the selected wavelengths based on known concentrations of n-heptaldehyde. From the observed relative response of known concentrations of n-heptaldehyde and 2-ethyl-2-hexenal, the true concentration for saturated and α,β-unsaturated carbonyl is obtained by a simple calculation. The method has been used extensively for alcohol systems ranging up to tetracontanol but is equally useful for hydrocarbons, aromatic oxygenates and hydrocarbons, petroleum distillates and kerosenes, organic acids and esters, and some ethers.