Group method approach to the estimation of response factors of unavailable substances in quantitative gas chromatography.

Abstract The method’s accuracy of a compound quantitation by chromatography depends on the calibration procedure with a pure standard of the target analyte, if the latter is unavailable uncertainty is unavoidable. The group method is a different approach in GC quantitative analysis that shows a practicable way for avoiding this uncertainty and accurately quantify a mixture containing one or more unavailable components. This paper is concerned with the definition of the group method quantitative parameters, the application procedures for their calculation, the determination of the quantitative proportion of a group of unavailable components of a mixture and the partial or total quantitation of the latter. The paper also describes the steps for carrying out the so-called group-correlation method in the determination of the response factors of unavailable compounds, which belong to a homologous series. The GC experimental corroboration of the group method approach employing model mixtures of compounds is also presented.