Abstract
The separation of trace amounts of aliphatic aldehydes was made by high performance liquid chromatography of their decahydroacridine-1, 8-dione derivatives. The fluorescence derivatizing procedure for the aldehydes is as follows; Ten grams of ammonium acetate and 0.25 g of cyclohexane-1, 3-dione were dissolved into 100 ml of the distilled water containing 5 ml of acetic acid. To 2 ml of this solution, was added 1 ml of sample solution containing trace quantities of the aldehydes.The solution was warmed at 60 °C for 30 min. After cooling to room temperature, a small portion of the solution was injected to a column by a micro syringe. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the separation of a mixture of C1 to C7 aldehyde derivatives was achieved within 30 min. by use of silica-ODS column (RP-18, 5μm, 4.6 mmφ x 250 mm) and methanol/water (60/40) mobile phase. The complete separation of a mixture of C1 to C12 aldehydes could be achieved by a gradient elution with methanol/water mobile phase (Fig. 4). By this procedure, quantitative analysis of aldehyde was accomplished and a few pico grams of aldehyde could be detected.
