A practical method for the quantitative determination of primary and secondary amines by gas chromatography was developed. Amines were readily converted into their N-n-amyloxycarbonyl derivatives by a simple procedure involving n-amyloxycarbonylation with n-amyl chloroformate in aqueous alkaline medium, and the resulting derivatives were extracted with isopropyl ether. The derivatives thus obtained have good gas chromatographic properties and are stable under normal laboratory conditions. The reproducibility of response was found to be good for derivatives carried through the entire chemical and chromatographic procedure, and the calibration graphs were linear.
