Studies on Droplet Counter-current Chromatographic Fractionation for Food Contamination Monitoring by GC/MS

Abstract

Studies on a fractionation procedure using droplet counter-current chromatography (DCC) for food contamination monitoring have been carried out. The elution profile of components could be predicted from the partition coefficients by making use of simple Gaussian curves by the least-squares method using a microcomputer. Volumes of stationary phase, V_S, and mobile phase, V_M, could be measured directly in the case of DCC. The partition coefficient, K, of various compounds between the stationary phase and the mobile phase could also be obtained easily. Elution profiles, including retention volume, V_R, and peak width, W_i, from DCC could therefore be estimated when the partition coefficient alone is known. The following equations are proposed for fractionation of various chemical contaminants. V_R=KV_S+d/2, F_i=m(V_M+V_i)/√n+d, F_i+1=(F_i-d)(2√n+m)/(2/√n-m)+d: where d is the injection volume, F_i is the volume of the i-th fraction, V_i is the center of the i-th fraction, n is the theoretical plate number, and m is an integer for mσ separation.