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Derivatization

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Practical Gas Chromatography

Abstract

GC is restricted to analytes that can be transferred into the gas phase without thermal decomposition. An approach to increase the volatility, thermal stability, and chromatographic behavior of a compound is a derivatization reaction. Analytical derivatization can tremendously extend the analyte range amenable to GC analysis. Nevertheless, it is often the least favored option in method development since it can be labor- and time-consuming and introduces an additional step in the sample preparation procedure. This chapter is meant as a starting point to analytical derivatization to illustrate the huge potential of this approach. However, a complete coverage of derivatization reactions described in the scientific literature is not intended. The most commonly used reactions, such as silylation, alkylation, acylation, oximation/hydrazone formation, and cyclization, are introduced. Furthermore, derivatization in aqueous solution, solid-phase derivatization, and decomposition reactions used for analyte determination are discussed.

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The careful review of the manuscript by Dr. A. Riechers is highly appreciated.

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Correspondence to Katja Dettmer-Wilde .

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Dettmer-Wilde, K. (2014). Derivatization. In: Dettmer-Wilde, K., Engewald, W. (eds) Practical Gas Chromatography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54640-2_17

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