A critical examination of the salicylaldehyde method for the determination of primary amines in the presence of secondary amines

Summary The salicylaldehyde method for the differentiation of primary and secondary amines in mixtures has been critically evaluated. This method yields best results in acetonitrile. In mixtures of amines one can expect high results for the primary amine with correspondingly low results for the secondary amine. Corrections can be made with known mixtures of the amines.Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory under contract number W-7405-ENG-48.