Determination of Methanol, Acetaldehyde, and Ethyl Acetate in Thousand Folds of Ethanol Sample by Headspace Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry

Table 4

Chromatographic system data: retention times, selectivity factor, peak area, resolution, symmetry, and theoretical plates at several mobile phase flow rates.

Compounds	Mobile phase flow rate (mL/min)	Retention time tR (min)	Peak area	Symmetry	Theoretical plates (N)	Selectivity factor (α)	Resolution (Rs)
Acetaldehyde	1.0	1.98	132912975	1.08	9801	4.23	24.43
	1.2	1.81	263343533	1.06	10625	4.14	21.33
	1.4	1.68	231957565	1.04	12544	4.38	21.71
	1.6	1.58	248895708	1.08	11095	4.25	22.00
Ethyl acetate	1.0	3.69	40166478	0.96	60516	1.07	2.00
	1.2	3.41	562827701	1.02	29070	1.07	10.15
	1.4	3.20	574141983	1.08	25600	1.38	54.29
	1.6	3.01	588579335	1.04	29584	1.39	9.73
	1.8	2.86	575987017	1.02	20449	1.39	9.33
	2.0	2.73	549110283	1.08	18632	1.39	9.07
Methanol	1.0	3.84	20731692	1.04	94372	1.29	11.00
	1.2	3.55	43102960	1.00	56011	1.29	10.15
Ethanol	1.0	4.54	290731692	1.08	51529	2.17	51.86
	1.2	4.21	746495376	1.04	57875	2.31	54.29
	1.4	3.95	484352051	1.13	39006	2.44	55.86
	1.6	3.74	451993075	1.00	34969	2.53	53.20
	1.8	3.56	485375812	0.96	41383	2.62	62.46
	2.0	3.41	312404571	0.98	37969	2.70	63.38
Butanol	1.0	8.17	89132249	1.13	296661	—	—
	1.2	8.01	205425091	1.04	209502	—	—
	1.4	7.86	205427572	1.01	274576	—	—
	1.6	7.73	204673487	1.04	195111	—	—
	1.8	7.62	212624219	1.06	258064	—	—
	2.0	7.53	20666047	0.95	252004	—	—