Gas-liquid chromatography of 2-chloroethyl esters using a detector specific for halogens.

The gas-liquid chromatography of 2-chloroethyl derivatives of short- and long-chain monocarboxylic acids, and of short-chain dicarboxylic acids and aldehydes has been studied with a dual-flame ionization detector that provided simultaneous records of the concentrations of chlorine and of total organic material in the column effluent. The chloroethyl derivatives of dicarboxylic acids and aldehydes could be distinguished from the chloroethyl esters of monocarboxylic acids on the basis of different ratios of responses of the two detectors. Analysis of a mixture of chloroethyl derivatives prepared from a natural product revealed that several compounds that might ordinarily have been identified as unsaturated or branched-chain fatty acid esters on the basis of their retention times had the higher chlorine content characteristic of chloroethyl derivatives of aldehydes or dicarboxylic acids.